Studies in The History of Religions, Lyon and Moore Eds. 1912

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SwUdies in ihe history of

religions
STUDIES
IN THE HISTORY OF
RELIGIONS
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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^y MAY H 1913
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STUDIES s2L^v^;GAl %^1

\V
IN THE HISTORY OF
RELIGIONS
PRESENTED TO
CRAWFORD HOWELL TOY

BY PUPILS COLLEAGUES
AND FRIENDS
EDITED BY
DAVID GORDON LYON

GEORGE FOOT MOORE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1912
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1912,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1912,
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EDITORIAL NOTE
The Harvard Club for the Study of the History of

Religions, which was founded by Professor Toy in the year
1891, intended to present to him a volume of essays on his
seventy-fifth birthday, March 23, 1911. They meant
thereby to express their affection for him as a man, and
their appreciation of him as a leader in the field of study to
which the Club is devoted. By invitation several other
friends of Professor Toy not members of the Club became
contributors to the work. Another friend, the Honorable
Jacob Henry Schiff, assumed, with characteristic generosity,
the expense of the publication.
The material of the contributions is necessarily technical,
but the several writers have had a wider circle of readers in
mind, and have accordingly tried to present their ideas in
untechnical language.
Unforeseen difficulties have delayed the appearance of the
volume. This delay is particularly regrettable in regard to
two or three of the studies, but the dates appended in such
cases will show when the articles were written.
In now presenting the work to our friend, and in offering
it to the public, the undersigned, as spokesmen for all those
who have had part in its preparation, congratulate Professor
Toy on his happy achievements in his favorite field of
study, and sincerely hope that many years of fruitfulness
still lie before him.
DAVID GORDON LYON,

GEORGE FOOT MOORE.
CONTENTS
PAGES
English Witchcraft and James the First . . . 1-65
George Lyman Kittredge, Harvard University.
Buddhist and Christian Parallels: The Mythological

Background 67-94
v
J. Esilin Carpenter, Manchester New College, Oxford.
Satirists and Enchanters in Early Irish Literature . 95-130

Fred Norris Robinson, Harvard University.
Saint Peter and the Minstrel 131-142

Edward Stevens Sheldon, Harvard University.
The Liver as the Seat of the Soul 143-168
Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania.
The Sikh Religion 169-186
Maurice Bloomfield, Johns Hopkins University.
Yahweh before Moses 187-204

v
George Aaron Barton, Bryn Mawr College.
Der Schluss des Buches Hosea 205-211
Karl Budde, Marburg University.
The Sacred Rivers of India 213-229
Edivard Washburn Hopkins, Yale University.
The Two Great Nature Shrines of Israel Bethel and :
Dan V
231-241
John Punnett Peters, Saint Michael's Church, New York.
AsiANic Influence in Greek Mythology

"
.... 243-253
William Hayes^Ward, The Independent," New York.

vii
viii CONTENTS
The Theologicai/ School at Nisibis ..... PAGES

255-2G7
George Foot Moore, Harvard University.
The Translations made from the Original Aramaic Gos-

pels 269-317
Charles Cutler Torrey, Yale University.
Oriental Cults in Spain 319-340
Clifford Hcrsehel Moore, Harvard University.
The Consecrated Women of the Hammurabi Code . 341-360
David Gordon Lyon, Harvard University.
Figurines of Syro-Hittite Art 361-365
Richard James Horatio Gottheil, Columbia University.
Bibliography . . . 367-373
Harry Wolfson. New York.

STUDIES
IN THE HISTORY OF
RELIGIONS
ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES
THE FIRST
George Lyman Kittredge
Harvard University
Common fame makes James I. a sinister figure in the his-

tory of EngHsh witchcraft. The delusion, we are told, was
dying out in the later years of Elizabeth, but James fanned
the embers into a devouring flame. His coming was the
signal for a violent and long-continued outburst of witch-
hunting, for which he was personally responsible. He pro-
cured the repeal of the comparatively mild Elizabethan law
and the enactment of a very cruel statute. He encouraged
and patronized witchfinders, and was always eager for fresh
victims. His reign is a dark and bloody period in the annals
of this frightful superstition.
Many authorities might be adduced in support of these
views, but I must rest content with quoting three writers
who have had some influence in propagating them, Mrs. —
Lynn Linton, Mr. Robert Steele, and Mr. G. M. Trevelyan.^
In 1861 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton published a volume of Witch
Stories, which was reissued in 1883 and has met with de-
served favor. Mrs. Linton has no mercy on James I. His
"
name stands accursed for vice and cruel cowardice and the
^
For other pronouncements of a more or less similar nature, see Sir Walter Scott,
Introduction to Potts's Discoverie, Somers Tracts, 2d edition, 1810, 3. 95; INIrs.
Lucy Aitkin, Memoirs of the Court of King James the First, 1822, 2. 166-107;
Retrospective Review, 1822, 5. 90; Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,
1830, pp. 227, 246-247; Crossley, Introduction to Potts, Chetham Society, 1845,
pp. xix., xiv. ; Thomas Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 1851, 1. 284,
2. 143-144 ; Charles Hardwick, History of Preston, 1857, p. 146 ; P. Q. Karkeek,
Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1874, 6. 786; F. A. Inderwick, Side-
Lights on the Stuarts, 2d ed., 1891, pp. 154-155; Horley, History of Sefton, 1893,
p. 115, note 1; H. N. Doughty, Blackwood's Magazine, March, 1898, 163, 388;
W. R. Roper, Materials for the History of Lancaster, Part i, Chetham Society, 1907,
pp. 26-27.
1
2 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAÎES THE FIRST
utmost selfishness of fear." ^ "Treacherous, cruel, narrow-

minded, and cowardly," she calls him, "beyond anything
that has ever disgraced the English throne before or since." ^
He had a "mania against witches,"* a "lust for witch
blood." "There was no holding in of this furious madness
'"
after James I. had got his foot in the stirrup, and was riding
a race neck and neck with the Devil." These are hard *^
words yet Mrs Linton knows that the beliefs which she has
;
in mind were "rampant in England when good Queen Bess

ruled the land," ^ and her own book contains facts enough
to give us pause.
Let us take a leap of thirty-odd years and read what Mr.
Robert Steele has to tell us in his article on witchcraft in
the fourth volume of a well-reputed work of collaboration,
Social England, edited by Mr. H. D. Traill :
With the accession of James a change came over the feeHngs of those
in power. During the later years of Elizabeth tract after tract appeared,
calHng for severe punishment upon witches, but with no result : the Eng-
lish trials, up to now, had been characterised rather by folly than ferocity,
the new rule was marked by ferocious folly. For forty years Scotland had
been engaged in witch-hunting, with the result that 8000 human beings
are believed to have been burnt between 1560 and 1600 and for the last ;
ten years of the century the king had been at the head of the hunt. . . .
In the first Parliament of James the more merciful Act of Elizabeth was
repealed a new and exhaustive one was enacted.
; Under this Act . . .
70,000 persons were executed up to 1680.*
I stand aghast at these figures. There is no sense or

reason in them. No records have been published or exam-
ined which would justify the assertion that a seventieth part
of this monstrous number met their death in the period
named. As for the time from the passage of the act of 1604
till the death of James in 1625, Mr. Steele would find it hard
to make out an average of more than two or three executions a

year. I half suspect that he has got hold of some statistics
of mortality from the plague.
Mr. Trevelyan is vaguer, but no less emphatic: "The
skeptical Elizabeth, perhaps with some pity for her sex, had
refused to yield when the pamphlet press called on the Gov-
2 3 * «
Ed. 1861, p. 20. Pp. 259-260. P. 259. "P. 261, P. 195.
»
^P. 195. 4. 85-86.
GEORGE LYMAN KITTREDGE 3
ernment to enact laws 'not suffering a witch to live.'

fiercer
The outburst came with the accession of a Scottish King,
who, though he rejected the best part of the spirit of Knox,
was crazed beyond his English subjects with the witch-
mania of Scotland and the continent. His first Parliament
enacted new death-laws at once the Judges and magistrates,
;
the constables and the mob, began to hunt up the oldest and
ugliest spinster who lived with her geese in the hut on the
common, or tottered about the village street mumbling the
^
inaudible soliloquies of second childhood." In this witch-
hunt, Mr. Trevelyan tells us, "learning, headed by the pedant
^°
King, was master of the hounds."
So much for the current opinion. ^^ Let us try to dis-
cover to what extent it is justified by the facts. And first
we must consider two things that have created an enormous
prejudice against King James,
—
his Scottish record and his
authorship of the Dsemonologie.

The history of witchcraft in Scotland is a difficult subject,
and it is particularly hard to determine just what degree of
responsibility attaches to King James. To sift the matter
thoroughly would require much time and space. Still, a
few facts are patent. (1) James did not make the Scottish
law of witchcraft. The statute was enacted in 1563, before
he was born, (2) He did not teach the Scottish nation the
witch creed. That creed was the heritage of the human
race, and was nowhere less questioned by all classes and all
professions than in Scotland, where, indeed, it survived in
full vigor for more than a century after James was dead.
(3) The worst period of Scottish prosecution does not fall in

his reign. The three great prosecutions were in 1590-1597,
in 1640-1650, and in 1660-1663. The second was worse
than the first, and the third (which began with the Restora-
tion) was the worst of all. (4) James did not initiate the
prosecutions of 1590.^^
3
England under the Stuarts [1904], p. 32.
" P. 33.
11
A but powerful vindication of King James was inserted by William
brief
Gifford in his edition of Ford (1. clxxi., Dyee's revision, 1869, 3. 276; cf. Quar-
terly Review, 41. 80-82), but it has attracted little attention. See also Disraeli's
Character of James the First (Miscellanies of Literature, N.Y., 1841, 3. 355-360).
^ See
particularly Mr. F. Legge's paper on Witchcraft in Scotland, in The Scottish
Review for October, 1891 (18. 257-288).
4 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAMES THE FIRST
Upon this last point we must dwell for a moment. In

1583, when James was a boy of seventeen, the Scottish clergy
called for a sharper enforcement of the law. In 1590 began
the trials of John Fian and his associates, with which the
name of the king is indissolubly connected. It seems quite
clear that these trials were not James's own idea. His in-
tellectual curiosity —
well known to be one of his most
salient characteristics —
led him to attend the examinations.
But he was not naturally credulous in such matters (as we
shall see later), he found the confessions beyond belief, and
he pronounced the witches "extreame lyars." When, how-
ever, Agnes Sampson, to convince him, repeated in his pri-
vate ear a conversation that he had held with the queen on
the marriage-night, he "acknowledged her words to bee most
"
true, and therefore gaue the more credit to their stories. ^^
It makes little difference what we think of this feat of Agnes
Sampson's the value of the anecdote lies in the light it
:
throws on the king's skepticism. Agnes also implicated the

Earl of Bothwell in a charge of witchcraft against the king's
life. James's dislike and fear of Bothwell are notorious ;
they appear in a striking passage of the Basilikon Doron.^*

He looked on Bothwell as his evil genius and was ever ready
to listen to anything to his discredit. Chancellor Maitland,
who was Bothwell's enemy, had the king's confidence. ^^
Numerous executions followed, and the great prosecution of
1590-1597 was now under way. It had started, however,
not with James, but, as usual, among obscure persons. The
king had simply become involved in the affair. No doubt he
countenanced the general witch-hunt that followed; but
he cannot be said to have encouraged it, for no encourage-
ment was needed. The clergy were eager, and the people
lived in constant terror of witches. If ever there was a
spontaneous popular panic, this was such an outbreak.
James and his Council had only to let the forces work. And,
indeed, it seems pretty certain that they had no power to
stem the current. Mr. Andrew Lang, who censures the king,
^^
Newes from Scotland, 1591, sig. B 2 (Roxburghe Club reprint).
" 1599, Roxburghe Clubreprint, p. 97.
1'
Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scotland, Bannatyne Club, 2. 412;
Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, 1. 230, 240, note ; Legge, Scottish Review, 18. 262.
says in plain terms that he "could not have controlled the

preachers."
^^
Add to this the testimony of Pitcairn, a
hostile witness, that the period from 1591 to 1596 was dis-
tinguished by "open defiance of the King and Parliament,
and by the frequent and daring conspiracies enterprised
^^
against the Royal person." Altogether, it does not ap-
pear that James is to blame for the events of 1590-1597, or
that the prosecution proves him either exceptionally credu-
lous or exceptionally devoted to witch-hunting. If a whole
nation believes in witchcraft, outbreaks of prosecution (like
other outbreaks) are likely to happen whenever there are
troublous times. This has been seen over and over again,
— in the tumult of the English Civil War, for instance, and
just after the Revolution, and in our own Salem at a critical

moment in New England history. ^^ James was not riding
the storm like Odin. He was only a mortal man, swept off
his feet by the tide.
Whether these considerations are just or not, one thing is
certain — by 1597 James was convinced that matters had
gone too far. Indictments were piling upon indictments,
there was no telling the innocent from the guilty, and no
end was in sight. Commissions of justiciary for witchcraft
were being held throughout Scotland, and the king, by a
stroke of the pen, revoked them all.^^ It is noteworthy
that the proximate cause of his action was the discovery
that many denunciations were fraudulent. Compare James's
incredulity at the outset, and the skill which he showed later
in life (as we shall see presently) in detecting similar impos-
tures. From 1597 to James's accession to the English throne
in 1603, there were abundant witch-trials in Scotland, but
the annual number of executions was much smaller, and
there is no reason to suppose that the king pressed for more.
When he succeeded to the English crown, the intensity of the
Scottish witch-quest had ceased, by his own act, and that
period was associated in his mind with a time of anarchy.
England looked to him like a haven of rest. He was certainly
i« " Criminal Trials, 1. 357.
History of Scotland, 2. 353.
i«
See Kittredge, Notes on Witchcraft, 1907, pp. 64-65.
19
Privy Council Register, 5. 409-410; Spottiswoode, 3. 66-67; Legge, p. 264;
Lang, History of Scotland, 2. 433.
thinking of other matters than witches when he came into

the promised land.
So much for the first of the two things that have led men to
approach James's English witch record with a prejudiced
opinion. Let us pass to the second, —
his authorship of
the Daemonologie.
The importance of lung James's Dsemonologie has been
greatly exaggerated, both as to its bearing on his supposed
career as a prosecutor and as to its effect on English senti-
ment in his time. The book is a confession of faith, not an
autobiography. It is proof of what James thought, not of
what he did. The publication of the Dsemonologie did not
cause the death of any Scottish witches, either directly or
indirectly. Nor did it convert a single Scottish skeptic,
for there were none to convert. The book did not appear
until 1597, —
the very year in which James, by a stroke of
the pen, checked the great prosecution that had been going
since 1590. As to England, the case against the Dsemonol-
ogie is pitifully weak. The treatise, though well-constructed
and compendious, is not original. It adduces neither new
facts nor new arguments. Mr. Gardiner is perfectly right
when he says that James "had only echoed opinions which
were accepted freely by the multitude, and were tacitly
admitted without inquiry by the first intellects of the day." ^"^
Certainly there is no reason to think that the Dsemonologie
had any appreciable effect on English sentiment.
I am well aware that King James's Dsemonologie was re-
issued in London in 1603. But this was a mere bookselling
speculation,^^ like the Latin translation by Germberg that
appeared at Hanover in 1604.^^ There is no parade about
the volume, no hint that it was published at the king's in-
stance. Contrast the circumstances attending the publica-
20
History of England, 1603-1642, 7. 322-323 (1899).
21
John Hawarde (born about 1571) makes a curious note in his manuscript,
Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata (ed. Baildon, pp. 179-180) :
"Nothinge
now was talked of but the relligion, vertue, wisedome, learninge. Justice, & manye
other most noble & woorthye prayscs of K. James, . his bookes new printed,
. .
(BaziXix"" Sorwv, Freen monarchies, Monologie, Expositions upon the Reuelacions

& the Kings, the Lepanto)."
22
There are two London editions of 1603. See the details in Ferguson, Publi-
cations of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 3. 51.
tion of the BasilikonDoron in the same year. This had been

privately printed in 1599, When it came before the piibHc
in 1603, there was a long, defensive preface, entirely new,
in which the king exerted himself to stand well with his Eng-
lish subjects.^^ James, as we have already remarked, had
other things than witchcraft to occupy his thoughts when
he mounted the English throne. If it can be shown that he
immediately engaged in a campaign for new witch-laws or
for more vigorous prosecution, then we may regard the
Dsemonologie of 1603 as a campaign document. But first
one must show that he did engage in any such campaign;
otherwise the question is begged. And, as we shall soon
discover, he did nothing of the kind.
Clearly, then, we must study the witch law and the witch-
trials of James's English reign on the basis, not of prejudice,
but of evidence. And first we may consider the Statute
of 1604.
The current ideas about the English laws against witchcraft
are very inaccurate. For these misapprehensions Thomas
Wright is in large part responsible. His learned and inter-
esting Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, which has enjoyed
a deserved popularity for more than fifty years, is surpris-
ingly loose in its statements about legal history.
"The first act in the statute-book against witchcraft,"
says Wright, "was passed in the thirty- third year of Henry
VIII. A.D. 1541, whereby this supposed crime was made
,
felony without benefit of clergy." So far he is quite cor-

^'^
rect, except for the year of our Lord, which should be 1542.
"In 1547," he adds, "when the power was entirely in the
hands of the religious reformers under Edward VI., his
father's law against witchcraft was repealed." This asser-
tion, though technically indisputable, is rather misleading.
The act to which Wright refers (1 Edward VI., c. 12) does
"^^
See the Roxburghe Club reprint of the 1599 edition. On the attention which
the Basilikon Doron attracted, see Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607,
pp. 10, 65.
24
Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 1851, 1. 279. See also the authors cited
above (p. 1, note 1). The account of the laws given by Mr. James Williams
in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., 24. 620-621) is above the average, but not
free from errors. There are serious mistakes in Mr. Robert Steele's summary in
Traill's Social England, 3. 326.
8 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAAIES THE FIRST
not once mention sorcery, magic, or witchcraft. The third

section wipes out of the statute-book "all offences made
felony by any act or acts of Parliament, statute or statutes,
made sithence the xxiiith day of April in the first year of the
reign of the said late King Henry theight, not being felony
before." Among these offences was witchcraft.
Wright's next statement is highly objectionable. It
amounts to a though inadvertent, suppressio veri.
serious,
"Under Elizabeth," he avers, "in 1562 [this should be 1563],
a new act was passed against witchcraft, punishing the first
conviction only with exposure in the pillory." ^^ Now the
truth is that Elizabeth's law was much severer than one
would infer from these words. It fixes the death penalty
(1) for all who "use, practise, or exercise invocations or con-
jurations of evil and wicked spirits to or for any intent or
purpose," quite irrespective of the result of such invocations
or conjurations, and (2) for all who practise witchcraft that
causes a person's death. Under the former provision to —
take a good example —
Edmund Hartlay lost his life in
Lancashire in 1597. He was a professed conjurer, and had
been employed to relieve the children of Mr. Nicholas Starkie,
who were thought to be possessed with devils. Hartlay
caught the hysterical affection himself and was tormented
in like manner. "The next day, beinge recouered, he went
into a little wood, not farr from the house, where he maide a
circle about a yarde and halfe wyde, deuiding it into 4. partes,
making a crosse at every diuision and when he had finished :
his worke, he came to M. Starchie and desiered him to go and

tread out the circle, saying, I may not treade it out my selfe,
and further, I will meete with them that went about my
death,"
^^ —
that is, in effect, I wish to raise the devils that
tried to kill me yesterday. There were other charges against
Hartlay, but none of a capital nature. "The making of his
circle was chefly his ouerthrowe." ^^ He denied the fact, but,
the rope breaking, confessed it before he died.^^
" Narratives, 1. 279.
^^
John Darrel, A True Narration, etc., 1600, p. 1.
" Darrel, p. 7.
**
Another case occurred in 1580.
William Randoll was hanged for conjuring
to discover hidden treasure and stolen goods. Four others were tried for aiding
and abetting, and three of them were sentenced to death, but reprieved. The trial
Furthermore, the Elizabethan statute provided that

**
witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery" which caused
bodily injury to human beings or damage to goods or chattels
should be punished with a year's imprisonment (with quar-
terly exposure in the pillory) for the first offence, and with
death for the second offence. And finally, the statute provided
imprisonment and the pillory, with lije imprisonment for the
second offence, for all who should "take upon" themselves
to reveal the whereabouts of hidden treasure or of lost or
stolen goods, or should practise witchcraft with intent to
provoke unlawful love or to "hurt or destroy any person in
his or her body, member, or goods." It must now be mani-
fest how unduly Wright extenuates the grimness of Eliza-
beth's law.
Thus we reach the reign of James I. In his second year
was passed the statute of 1604, which remained in force until
1736. The relation of this act to the statute of Elizabeth,
which it repealed, becomes a matter of great importance to
determine. Here Wright leaves us in the lurch. James,
he "passed a new and severe law against witchcraft,^^
tells us,
in which it now became almost a crime to disbelieve."
^"
We
are led to infer that, whereas Elizabeth's law was mild and
hardly objectionable, James's statute was both novel and
severe. The facts are quite different. James's statute
follows Elizabeth's in the main, even in phraseology. (1) The
new statute (like the old) provides death as the penalty for
invocation or conjuration of evil spirits for any purpose and
without regard to the issue. But it inserts two clauses
making it also felony to "consult, covenant with, entertain,
"
employ, feed, or reward any such spirit for any purpose,
was held at the King's Bench (Holinshed, 4. -133). An excessively curious case is
that of a woman tried by the mayor of Faversham, Kent, in 1586. The court and
jury were convinced that she was not guilty of witchcraft. In order to clear her of
the capital charge, a verdict of guilty of invocation and conjuration was brought in.
The mayor was about to congratulate the defendant on escaping with her life, when
the legal adviser of the corporation informed him that invocation and conjuration
amounted to felony, and she was hanged accordingly. Full details are given by
John Waller in Holinshed, 4. 891-893.
23
1. 284.
it is instructive to observe that in 1578 one Dr. Browne
^°
As to this latter dictum,
was "spread misliking of the laws, by saying there are no
in trouble because he
witches" (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Addenda, 156&-1579, p. 551).
10 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAjMES THE FIRST
or to dig up any dead body, or part thereof, for use in sor-

cery. (2) For witchcraft that kills, death is the penalty (as in
the EHzabethan enactment). (3) For witchcraft that causes
hodily harm, but does not kill, the new law imposes death
for the first (instead of the second) offence. (4) For the
minor varieties of sorcery and witchcraft, death is substituted
for life imprisonment as the penalty for the second offence.^^
Clearly the statute of 1604 is not so great a novelty as we
have been led to think. It is, to be sure, more severe than
the Elizabethan enactment, but only in some respects. Let
us study the two a little further.
The substitution of death for life imprisonment as the pen-
alty for the second offence in certain minor grades of sorcery
can hardly be called an increase in severity. The appalling
state of the prisons is notorious. There was a dreadful out-
break of jail fever at the Oxford assizes in 1579,^- and another
at the Exeter assizes in 1586.^^ Prisoners often died while
awaiting trial or execution. In 1608 the Earl of Northamp-
ton, as Warden of the Cinque Ports, induced the mayor of
Rye to admit to bail a woman condemned to death for aiding
and abetting a witch. Her execution had been stayed, and
it was feared that she would succumb to the "lothsomness of
the prison." ^^ Under such conditions, the change from a

life-sentence to hanging was rather mercy than rigor.
The penalty for digging up the dead (unknown to the
Elizabethan law) was not excessive, in view of the general
severity of the penal code. The thing was certainly done
now and then. It was a real —
not an imaginary crime, —
and deserved punishment. However, no case has ever been
cited in which a man or woman was put to death for this
^1
There is some difiFerence between the two statutes in defining the minor varieties,
but slight and not in the direction of severity.
it is
^2
See the extraordinary passage in Webster's Displaying of Supposed Witch-
craft, 1677, pp. 245-246.
^'
Walsingham to Leicester (Leycester Correspondence, Camden Society, p.
24) ; Hooker (alias Vowell), in Holinshed, 4. 868 Thomas Cogan, The Haven
;
of
Heath, 1589, pp. 272 ff. See also an important paper on the Black Assizes in the
West, by F. Wilcocks, M.D., in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 16.
595 ff. For Vowell, see Charles Worthy, in the same Transactir^ns, 14. 631 ff. (cf.
11. 442 ff.).
*•
13th Report of the Commission on Historical MSS., Appendix, Part iv., pp.
139-140.
offence alone, and we may therefore disregard that clause as

of no practical effect.
As for the new provision about consulting or covenanting
with evil spirits, or feeding them, it was capable of operating
with great severity. In fact, however, I do not believe that
a single case can be found during James's reign in which
anvbodv suffered death under this clause who was not other-
wise liable to the extreme penalty .^^
There remains, then, one change in the law, and only one,
— death for the^r^^ (instead of the second) offence in witch-
craft that injures the body without killing,
—
to justify the
common opinion that James's statute of 1604 was so stern
an enactment as to make an era in English witch-prosecu-
tion.
At the outset, candor impels us to inquire whether James's
statute was really severe at all. Our judgment must be
based, not on our present penal code, but on that of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. When death was the
penalty for stealing a sheep, or breaking into a house, or tak-
ing a purse on the highway, or stealing thirteenpence, was
it harsh to hang a witch for driving her neighbor mad or
smiting him with epilepsy or paralysis

^^
To object that
.^^
witches could not do such things is no answer. This objec-

tion might hold against the passing of any laio ichaiever, but
has nothing to do with the question of severity. It is quite
as silly to fine or imprison a man for an impossible crime as
to hang him for it. However, we may waive this point, for
we are more directly concerned with the question whether
James's law was so much severer than Elizabeth's as to make
its passage a momentous event. This is to be tested, of
course, by obserx-ing how the two laws worked, not by weigh-
ing their words.
To get the perspective, let us look at one of the most no-
A possible exception is Susan Swapper, of Rye. She was condemned in 1607,

'^
but I cannot find that she was ever executed. The case is exceedingly curious (see
Commission on Historical MSS., 13th Report, Appendix, Part iv., pp. 136-137,
139-140, \U, 147-148). For what happened after 1643, when -James had been in
his grave a score of years, it is absurdly cruel to hold him accountable.
'^
Cf the obser\-ations of Mr. J. W. Brodie-Innes in his interesting brochure
.
on Scottish Witchcraft Trials, pp. 21-24. (Privately Prmted Opuscula issued to

Members of the Sette of Odd Volumes, No. 25, 1891.)
12 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAJVIES THE FIRST
torious of Elizabethan cases, that of St. Osyth in Essex.

One Ursula (or Ursley) Kempe,Grey, was a woman
alias
of ill repute, who lived, with Thomas Rabbet, her bastard
son, in the little village of St. Osith's (now St. Osyth), near
Colchester. She had long lain under suspicion of witchcraft.
There was sickness in the family of a neighbor, Grace Thur-
lowe, and Grace fancied that Ursula was to blame. The
local magistrate, Brian Darcey, lent a ready ear to her com-
plaint. Witnesses came forward in abundance, and one

revelation led to another, as usual. Thomas Rabbet gave
evidence against his mother. Ursula confessed her crimes,
with many tears. A whole nest of offenders was uncovered,
and, in conclusion, no less than thirteen witches were con-
victed. This was in 1582.^^ The affair made a great noise,
and appears to have been the chief immediate impulse to
Reginald Scot's famous book. The Discovery of Witchcraft.
Of the thirteen persons convicted on this occasion, all but
three were found guilty of "bewitching to death," and con-
sequently suffered the extreme penalty under the statute of
Elizabeth. James's statute would have hanged the other
three as well. To this extent, and to this extent alone, would
it have operated more severely than its predecessor.
The St. Osyth tragedy took place about twenty years

before James I. succeeded to the English crown. Will it be
believed, in the face of the vehement denunciation to which
this king is traditionally subjected as a besotted persecutor,
that nothing comparable to it occurred in his reign until 1612,
when he had been on the throne for nine years ? Yet such
is the indisputable fact.
An analysis of these Lancashire trials of 1612, on the basis

of Thomas Potts's official narrative, yields the following
results. Nineteen persons were tried, of whom eight were
acquitted. Of the eleven convicted, one (whose offence was
the killing of a mare) was sentenced to the pillory. This
leaves ten who were hanged. ^^ Six of these were indicted
'^
Linton, Witch Stories, 1861, pp. 205-221 (from the original narrative by W.W.,
—A True and lust Recorde, etc., 1582).
^^
The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. . . . To-
gether with the Arraignement and Triall of lennet Preston, at Yorke, Lon-
. . .
don, 1613. Cf. Farington Papers, Chetham Society, 1856, p. 27. One other
died before trial.
for murder by witchcraft, and therefore would have suffered

death under EHzabeth's law as surely as under James's.
Four, then, were executed who might have got off with im-
prisonment if the older statute had remained in force. But
it is by no means certain that all of the four would actually
have escaped the gallows. For there was evidence of mur-

der by witchcraft against two of them, and they might have
been tried on that charge if the lesser accusation of driving a
woman insane had not sufficed to send them out of the world.
There remain but two, therefore, of the eleven convicted, who,
so far as we can see, would have been in no danger of death
under Elizabethan conditions. And one of these exemptions
may be balanced by the case of the woman sent to the pil-
lory for killing a mare, inasmuch as there was testimony that
she too had confessed to a couple of murders, so that the
prosecutors might have found an excuse for hanging her, even
under Elizabeth's statute, if they had so desired. Id the
same year. Jennet Preston was hanged at York. She was
convicted of murder by witchcraft, and would have suffered
death by Elizabeth's law. Likewise in 1612, there was an
outbreak of prosecution in Northamptonshire, which ended
in the execution of five persons. Every one of these, how-
ever, had been found guilty of murder by witchcraft. ^^
Hence their fate under the statute of James was precisely
what it would have been if Elizabeth's statute of 1563 had
never been supplanted.
Two facts of immense significance are now clear first, :
that James's accession was not the signal for an outbreak

of witch prosecution, for he had been on the throne for nine
years before any such outbreak occurred second, that the
;
statute of 1604 was not appreciably more severe, in its prac-

tical working in 1612, than the Elizabethan statute would
have been at the same time if it had continued in force.
Before leaving the events of 1612, however, we must in-
quire whether James had any hand in the prosecutions. The
answer is unequivocal. There is not a particle of evidence
that he either suggested or encouraged the trials, or, indeed,
that he ever heard of the cases until the defendants had been
»9The Witches of Northamptonshire, 1612 (reprint, 1867).

hanged. A contrary view is sometimes expressed with

regard to the Lancaster trials,^" but there is no foundation
for it. The source of the error is nothing more or less than
WilHam Harrison Ainsworth's romance entitled The Lan-
cashire Witches. This was published in 1849, and appears
to have proved more entertaining to some historians than
the study of authentic documents.
One of Ainsworth's most amusing characters is Master
Thomas Potts, a London lawyer. Potts happens to be in
Lancashire on legal business, and, on coming into contact
with the rumors and petty intrigues of the neighborhood,
grasps the chance to ingratiate himself with King James by
gathering evidence and fomenting prosecution. "So there
are suspected witches in Pendle Forest, I find," says Master
Potts; "I shall make it my business to institute inquiries
concerning them, when I visit the place to-morrow. Even
if merely ill-reputed, they must be examined, and if found in-
nocent cleared if not, punished according to the statute.

;
Our soverign lord the king holdeth witches in especial ab-

horrence, and would gladly see all such noxious vermin
extirpated from the land, and it will rejoice me to promote
his laudable designs. . He is never so pleased as when
. .
the truth of his tenets are proved by such secret offenders

being brought to light, and duly punished." And again ^^
:
—
"If I can unearth a pack of witches, I shall gain much credit
from my honourable good lords the judges of assize . . . ,
besides pleasing the King himself, who is sure to hear of it,

^^
and reward mypraiseworthy zeal."
Ainsworth is quite within his rights as a novelist, but we
should not read him as if he were an historian. Potts had
nothing to do with getting up the evidence or fomenting the
prosecution. He was a London lawyer, or law-writer, who
acted as clerk at the Lancaster assizes. Probably he was
accompanying the justices on their circuit. At the instance
of these justices, as we know, he prepared an official narrative,
which was published in 1613 after revision by one of them (Sir
Edward Bromley). The king is mentioned only once in this
^"See, for example, Horley, Sefton, 1893, p. 115, note 1; Roper, Materials for
the History of Lancaster, Part i., Chetham Society, 1907, pp. 26-27.
« 1. 199-200. « 1. 207 (cf. 1. 244, 247).
and that in passing

tract (except, of course, in legal formulas), :
"What hath the Kings Maiestie written and published in his

Dcemonologie, by way of premonition and preuention, which
hath not here by the first or last beene executed, put in prac-
^^
tise or discouered." If James had known anything about
the case. Potts would surely have brought him in.
But we are not done with Ainsworth's contributions to
history. In the third volume of the romance he introduces
King James in person, talking broad Scots, profoundly im-
pressed by the evidence, causing the witches to be brought
into his presence, and urging on the prosecution. These
scenes occur while he is the guest of Sir Richard Hoghton at
Hoghton Tower.^ All this is very good fiction indeed. But
it should not pass as history. The Pendle witches were
hanged in August, 1612. James made a progress that sum-
mer, but not in Lancashire. His visit to Hoghton Tower
was five years later, in August, 1617.^^
Ainsworth wrote The Lancashire Witches at the suggestion
of Mr. James Crossley, to whom he dedicated it. Mr. Cross-
ley was an admirable antiquary, and the world is in his debt
for a first-rate edition of Potts's Disco verie and for manv other
things. But, though very learned in the literature of witch-
craft, he was far astray in his estimate of James's attitude
and in other pertinent matters. He ignores the Elizabethan
statute and lays stress on that of James, "enacted," he avers,
"as the adulatory tribute of all parties, against which no
honest voice was raised, to the known opinions of the mon-
arch." ^^ Mr. Crossley could not fail to observe that the
passage of the "execrable statute" of 1604 was not followed
by an instant fury of prosecution. He knew well that eight
years elapsed before anything took place that was at all
notable. And this is how he expresses himself the stat- :
ute, he suggests, "might have been sharpening its appetite

by a temporary fast for the full meal of blood by which
^^
it was eventually glutted." This is not merely personi-
fication,
— it is pure mythology.
« Potts, Wonderfull Discoverie, « 3. 241 ff.

sig. T2.
*^
Journal of Nicholas Assheton, ed. Raines, Chetham Society, 18-t8, pp. 32 ff.
^^
Introduction to his reprint of Potts, Chetham Society, vol. 6, p. xviii.
" Introduction to Potts, p. xlv.
The plain and simple truth is this During the twenty-

:
two years of James's reign (1603-1625), there was no more

excitement on the subject of witchcraft, and there were no
more executions, than during the last twent^'-two years uf
Elizabeth (1581-1603).'^ James's accession was not in any
sense the signal for an outburst of prosecution. As we have
just noted, the first bad year was 1612, when he had been on
the throne for almost a decade. It is certain that the statute
of 1604 was not more severe, in its practical workings, than
the statute of Elizabeth.'*^ Nor can a single fact be brought
forward to prove that James was eager, during his English
reign, to multiply the number of victims.
We must now examine the prevalent opinion that the stat-
ute of 1604 was passed to please King James or at his in-
stance, or, indeed, that he wrote the bill himself. Most
readers will be surprised to learn that not a particle of direct
evidence has ever been adduced in favor of any of these
propositions. They rest entirely upon assumption or in-
ference. The earliest testimony that I can discover ^° is
Hutchinson's, in 1718, — more
than a century late and ;
Hutchinson, more suo, is commendably cautious. He does

not profess to have any authority for his views. "I cannot
forbear thinking
" —
such are his words —
"that it was the
King's Book and Judgment, more than any Encrease of
Witches, that influenc'd the Parliament to the changing the
Old Law." ^^ And again, "I cannot but think, that if King
James himself was not the first Mover and Director in this
change of the Statute, yet there might probably be a Design
of making Court to the King by it." ^^ He frankly labels
"
his theory "the best Guess I can make." ^^
The "juryman
^'
Exact figures are unattainable, but the records are quite as trustworthy for
1603-1625 as for 1581-1603. It is altogether unlikely that a complete scrutiny would
bring to light more new cases of execution for the later period than for the earlier.
*^
That is, not more severe during James's reign. For what occurred long after
the king's death, he cannot be blamed.
^^
It is to be hoped that what Thomas Cooper says in The Mysterie of Witch-
craft, 1617, p. 7, will not be taken as evidence in favor of the current view. Here-
tofore it has not been so utilized.
" Historical
Essay concerning Witchcraft, 1718, p. 179 (ed. 1720, p. 221)-
^2
P. 180. Here Hutchinson is referring to a particular part of the statute (about
the violation of graves).
" P. 178.
(his interlocutor in the dialogue) accepts the theory: "I

am the apter to believe this Account because I have often
;
heard, that our Law did come from thence," that is, from
Scotland along with the new king.^^ Dr. William Harris, in
his account of James I. (1753), follows Hutchinson, whom he
cites, remarking that the statute was "formed out of com-
^^
pliment (as has been well conjectured)." Scott, in 1810,
follows Hutchinson, remarking that the statute "probably
had its rise in the complaisance of James's first Parliament." '-'^
By 1829 the tradition had hardened considerably, so that

a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine asserted that James
have penned So much "
"is said to [the statute] himself."
for the external evidence, now —
for the probabilities.
In the first place, the text of the statute is sufficient proof
that James did not draft it himself. For it is not a new law.
It follows, in the main, the Elizabethan statute word for
word. At the utmost, James can be suspected of penning
only a few phrases. This part of the charge we may there-
fore dismiss without ceremony. But what of the view that
James fathered or fostered the bill, that it was introduced
at his instance, or passed with an eye to his favor ? Was
there, or was there not, such a state of public opinion in Eng-
land as will account for the statute without our having re-
course to the conjecture that it was passed under James's
influence or out of complaisance to him ?
If this were merely a question of the rank and file of the
people, there would be no room for argument. The last few

years of Elizabeth's reign abounded in witch prosecutions and
were marked by intense popular excitement on the subject.
A typical outbreak was that in Devon in 1601 and 1602,
when the Trevisard family was complained of before Sir
Thomas Ridge way. ^^ But we are now occupied with the
lawmakers, who, though constantly exposed to pressure from
the populace, may conceivably have preferred the status quo.
Was there, or was there not, before James's accession, a
M p. 180. '°
Pp. 40-41.
" Somers Tracts, 2d edition, 3. 95.
" In a series of articles on the Rise and
Progress of Witchcraft, containing
much
valuable material. Gentleman's Magazine Library, Popular Superstitions, p. 233.
^*
See the original examinations (inedited) in the Harvard College Library.
18 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAIVIES THE FIRST
movement among the better educated classes for a revision

of the law and a sharpening of the penalties ? To test this
question, we may consult four well-known treatises which
are seldom scrutinized from this point of view. We will
begin with Perkins's Discourse.
William Perkins, the eminent theologian, born in 1558,
was Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1584 to
1594. He died in 1602, leaving behind him A Discourse of
the Damned Art of Witchcraft, which was published in 1608
by Thomas Pickering, B.D. of Cambridge, and Minister of
Finchingfield, Essex. Pickering dedicated the volume to
Coke. Though not issued in the author's lifetime, this trea-
tise is good evidence as to what the views of learned English-
men were at the turn of the century. Nor was it without
influence before Perkins died, for, as the title-page sets
"
forth, the discourse was "framed and delivered by him
"in his ordinarie course of Preaching." It came from the
press of the Cambridge University Printer.
Perkins's book is a masterpiece. It is cogently reasoned,
and marked by that concise and simple style for which this
author was distinguished above his contemporaries. We
may shudder at his opinions, but are forced to admire his
candor and ability. Perkins warns his readers against con-
victing on slender evidence. His virile and methodical in-
tellect draws the line sharply between presumptions that jus-
^^
tify suspicion, and proofs that warrant a verdict of guilty.
Certain superstitious popular tests he rejects utterly, —
such as scratching the witch, and firing the thatch of her
^°
cottage, and the ordeal by swimming. Some of these,
he declares, "if not all, are after a sort practises of Witch-
craft, hauing in them no power or vertue to detect a Sor-
cerer, either by Gods ordinance in the creation, or by any
speciall appointment since." In scouting the water ordeal,
Perkins may have had his eye upon King James's defence
of it in the Dsemonologie. "It appeares," the king had writ-
ten, "that God hath appointed (for a supernaturall signe
of the monstrous impietie of Witches) that the water shall
refuse to receiue them in her bosome, that haue shaken off
" 60
pp, 206 S.
Pp. 200 ff.
them the sacred Water of Baptisme, and wilfully refused

the benefite thereof." ^^ Note the brevity and force of Per-
kins's refutation :
—
"To iustifie the casting of a Witch into
the water, it is alledged, that hauing made a couenant with the
deuill, shee hath renounced her Baptisme, and hereupon there
growes an Antipathic betweene her, and water. Ans. This
allegation serues to no purpose for all water is not the water
:
of Baptisme, but that onely which is vsed in the very act

of Baptisme, and not before nor after. The element out of
the vse of the Sacrament, is no Sacrament, but returnes
again to his common vse."
^^
Let us remark, in passing,
that Thomas Pickering, a beneficed clergyman, did not
hesitate to publish this unceremonious denial of the king's
argument in 1608, when James had been five years on the
throne, and to dedicate the work which contains it to Chief
Justice Coke. This may serve to correct, p7'o tanto, the too
prevalent opinion that James I. expected his English subjects
to receive his Dsemonologie as but little, if at all, inferior in
authority to the Holy Scriptures.
Our immediate concern, however, is with the general
tendency of Perkins's treatise, and in particular with his
precepts as to punishment. He admits the witch dogma
in its entirety. The ground of all sorcery is a league or
covenant with the devil, which may be either express or
implicit. There are two kinds of witchcraft, namely,
—
divining and working.
^^
The second class includes the rais-
ing of storms, the poisoning of the air (which brings pesti-
lence), the blasting of corn, "the procuring of strange pas-
sions and torments in mens bodies and other creatures, with
the curing of the same." ^^ It is an error to hold that melan-
cholia so deludes women that they imagine themselves
witches when indeed they are none. Perhaps, after the
witch has madeher contract with the fiend, she may credit
herself with imaginary powers, but the wonders already
enumerated she can certainly perform, with Satan's aid.^^
Thus Perkins opposes himself squarely to Wierus and Scot.
His refutation of their theories is solid and convincing, if we
" London, Printed W.
for William Apsley and Cotton, 1603, p. 80 (misprinted,
"64").
^ P. 208. « P. 55. " P. 128. « Pp. 191-196.
admit what nobody dreamt of denying, —

the existence of
evil spirits. His book, indeed, may be taken as a measure
of the slight effect which these dissentients had produced on
the minds of sixteenth-century Englishmen.
As to the law against witchcraft, Perkins is an invaluable
witness. He wrote when the Elizabethan statute was in
force, and he was of course not under the sway of King James
of Scotland, with whose theories, indeed, we have seen him
at outspoken variance. Perkins believes that the law of
Moses should continue in force, and that "all Witches beeing
thoroughly conuicted by the Magistrate," should be put to
death.*^^
He expressly declares that this punishment ought
to be inflicted not only upon those who kill by means of witch-
craft, but upon all witches without any exception whatever,
— upon
"
all Diuiners, Charmers, luglers, all Wizzards,
commonly called wise wise women." He includes

men and
"good Witches, which doe no
in plain terms all so-called
hurt but good, which doe not spoile and destroy, but saue
and deliver." Here he uses a really unanswerable argu-
ment, which shows in the most striking fashion how ill-
equipped we are, with our mild penal laws, to sit in judg-
ment on the severity —whether actual or comparative —
of the Jacobean statute. "By the lawes of England,"
writes Perkins, "the thiefe is executed for stealing, and we
think it iust and profitable but it were a thousand times
:
better for the land, if all Witches, but specially the blessing
Witch might suffer death. For the thiefe by his stealing,
and the hurtfull Inchanter by charming, bring hinderance
and hurt to the bodies and goods of men but these are;
the right hand of the deuill, by which he taketh and

destroieth the soules of men. Men doe commonly hate
and spit at the damnifying Sorcerer, as vnworthie to
Hue among them; whereas the other is so deare vnto
them, that they hold themselues and their countrey blessed
that haue him among them, they flie vnto him in
necessitie, they depend vpon him as their god, and by
this meanes, thousands are carried away to their finall
confusion. Death therefore is the iust and deserued por-
66
p. 247.
tion of the good Witch." These are the closing words

^^
of Perkins's weighty treatise.
Perkins was a vital force in forming English opinion while
he was alive, especially during the last decade of the sixteenth
century and at the beginning of the seventeenth. Few
Cambridge lecturers were more authoritative, and Cambridge
was in close contact with public men. He "was buried with
great solemnity at the sole charges of Christs Colledge, the
University and Town striving which should expresse more
sorrow at his Funeral Doctor Montague Preached his
;
Funeral Sermon upon that Text, Moses my Servant is dead." ^^

This was James Montagu, first Master of Sidney Sussex
College, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells (1608) and of
Winchester (1616). Bishop Hall, who was at Cambridge
while Perkins was active, commends him warmly. "A
worthy divine," he calls him, "whose labors are of much note
and use in the Church of God." ^^ Fuller is also among his
admirers. ^° How the Discourse worked when its substance
"
was orally delivered "in his ordinarie course of preaching
may be inferred from the respect with which the printed
book is continually cited, —
by Cotta, for example, in his
Triall of Witch-craft (1616).^^ Cotta's treatise is likewise
dedicated to Coke.
John Cotta was of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1590,
and later of Corpus Christi. He received the degree of M.A.
in 1596, and that of M.D. in 1603. His first book appeared
in 1612. It contains a good deal about witchcraft. In
1616 he published a systematic treatise, A Triall of Witch-
which a second edition came out in 1624. The main
craft, of
object of this work is to prove that any given case of alleged
sorcery ought to be examined by methods of the senses and
reason, like other objects of investigation. Cotta, then,
is on the right side. He follows Wierus in maintaining that
*^
Pp. 256-257. For other expressions of opinion on witchcraft, see Perkins's
Golden Chaine, ed. 1605, pp. 34-36, and his Combate betweene Christ and the
Diuell, ed. 1606, pp. 16, 25, 37.
^^
Samuel Clarke, Life of Perkins (Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Part i.,
3d ed., 1675, p. 416) ; cf. John Manningham's Diary, ed. Bruce, Camden Society,
p. 104 ; Fuller, Holy State, ed. 1840, p. 71.
«9
Works, Oxford. 1837, 6. 340.
™ See note 68 above. " Pp. 53, 89. 91, 95.
many so-called bewitched persons are suffering from natural

disease. When he wrote he was practising at Northampton,
where he had resided ever since he took his medical degree
in 1603. His rationalizing attitude was largely the result
own experience
of his as a physician during this interval.
The whole ground of Cotta's argument is an acceptance
of the traditional witch-dogma. He believes that there are
witches in plenty that they make contracts with the devil
; ;
that supernatural deeds are performed by the fiend, in which

the witch "hath a property and interest" by virtue of her
covenant with him that, in this way, witches may be im-
;
plicated in afflicting their fellow-creatures with diseases or in

causing their death. As concrete examples, we may take
the witches of Warboys (1589-1593) and the Lancashire
witches (1612), for both of those notorious cases are accepted
"^
by Cotta without demur. And, just as he is confident
that the guilt of a witch may be discovered with certainty
by methods of reason and perception which he develops
elaborately, so he is content to leave her to the courts, to
be "arraigned and condemned of manifest high treason
against Almighty God, and of combination with his open and
professed enemy the Diuell."
^^
The statute of 1604 was
none too rigorous for Dr. Cotta. If these were his sentiments
in 1616,when he was writing a cautionary and corrective
treatise,we may be certain that his views were quite as
orthodox at the turn of the century, when he was still at the
University of Cambridge and subject to the influence of Per-
kins, whom he cites with so much respect.
From Cambridge we turn to Oxford. Thomas Cooper,
of Christ Church, was A.B. in 1590, A.M. in 1593, B.D. in
1600. In 1601 he was presented by his college to a living
in Cheshire, which he resigned in 1604, From 1604 to 1610
he was vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry. ^^ His volume
entitled The Mystery of Witch-craft was not published until
1617, but it embodies information enough about the author's
^2
Pp. 77, 90.
" P. 80.
'Ôrmerod, County of Chester, ed. Helsby, 1. 611; Joseph Welch, List of the
Queen's Scholars of St. Peter's College, Westminister, ed. Phillimore, p. 59;
Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1. 325; Dictionary of National Biography; Cooper,
Mystery, sig. A2.
experiences and opinions in the time preceding the accession

of James to make it available for our present purposes.
Cooper's acquaintance with magic began while he was a
student at Oxford. There was a time, he tells us, when
he "admired some in the Vniuersitie famozed in that skill."
"Did not," he exclaims, —
"did not the Lord so dispose of
mee, that my Chamber-fellow was exceedingly bewitched
with these faire shewes, and hauing gotten diuers bookes to
that end, was earnest in the pursuit of that glorie which
might redound thereby ? Did not wee communicate our
Studies together ? was not this skill proposed and canuased
in common ? And did not the Lord so arme his vnworthy
seruant, that not onely the snare was gratiously espied but, ;
by the great mercie of my God, the Lord vsed mee as a

meanes to diuert my Chamber-felloiv from these dangerous
"
studies Thus we learn that when Cooper received his
?
^^
Cheshire living, in 1601, he was deeply impressed with the

horror of dealing with devils. Between this date and 1610
he had several encounters with witchcraft, at Northwich —
(near Chester), in Lancashire, and at Coventry.'^^ Some of
these are perhaps too late for us to use, but the Northwich
incident falls in 1601 and 1602."^ At all events, we are safe
in believing that the sentiments w^hich Cooper expresses in
his volume do not differ appreciably from those which he
entertained before James's accession. Now Cooper agrees
in all essentialsand in most particulars with Perkins, from
whom he borrows largely without due acknowledgment.^^
Writing after the passage of the statute of 1604, he rejoices
that the law has been made severer."^ Yet he is not satisfied.
Like Perkins, he holds that "the Blesser or good Witch . . .
^°
is farre more dangerous then the Badcle or hurting Witch,''
and that both kinds ought to be extirpated. Thus it ap-

75 "6
Pp. 12-13. Sig. A3, A4, p. 13.
77 Answere to Darrel,
Deacon and Walker refer to the case in their Summarie
1601, p. 237. Darrel, in A Survey of Certain Dialogical Discourses, 1602, p. 54,
gives the boy's name (" Tho. Hari.ion of North Wych in Ches shire"), and says that
he is "at very greuously vexed by Sathan."
this present
78
Compare, with Perkins, pp. 19-22, 26, 27,
for instance. Cooper, pp. 52-55,
30, 31, 33, 34; Cooper, pp. 64-65, with Perkins, pp. 41-43; Cooper, p. 68, with
Perkins, pp. 47-48; Cooper, pp. 128-133, 136, with Perkins, pp. 55-67, 73, 92,
104.
73
P. 314. 80
p 232.
pears that Cooper, though he wrote after the passage of the

statute of 1604, may serve as a witness to the opinions that
prevailed among many of the clergy at about the turn of the
century.
Our fourth witness is a very strong one, and his testimony
isnot complicated by inferences about dates. He is George

Giffard, another Oxford man. Giffard's Dialogue concern-
ing Witches and Witchcrafts was first published in 1593,
—
a year otherwise notable in the annals of English sorcery,
as we shall see in a moment. It was reissued in 1603, three
^^
years after his death. Giffard was an eminent preacher
of Maldon, in Essex. He passes for one of the earliest op-
ponents of the witchcraft delusion, and with some reason,
for he held that sickness and death ascribed to witchcraft
were due to natural causes, he repudiated spectral and hear-
say evidence, and he argued against convicting anybody
except on conclusive testimony. Yet it never entered his
head to deny the existence of witches or to doubt that they
have dealings with the fiend. He tells us that the times
were devil-haunted. "It falleth out in many places euen
of a sudden, as it seemeth to me, and no doubt by the heauie
iudgement of God, that the Diuels as it were let loose, do
more preuaile, then euer I haue heard of. Satan is . . .
now heard speake, and beleeued. He speaketh by con-

iurers, by sorcerers, and by witches, and his word is taken.
He deuiseth a number of things to be done, & they are put in
^-
practise and followed." Giffard is here speaking in his
own person. Elsewhere
in the dialogue he gives us a first-
rate account of the popular terror. One of the interlocutors
is "Samuel," an honest and well-to-do goodman. "They
say," declares Samuel, "there is scarse any towne or village
in all this shire, but there is one or two witches at the least
in it." And the annals of Essex bear out Samuel's views.
^^
Thirteen witches, as we have seen, were convicted and ten

*i
The Dictionary of National Biography and Dr. Usher date Giffard's death
1620. But he was doubtless the George Giffard of Maldon whose will was proved
in 1600 (Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New
Series, 7. 46). For
Giffard's connection with the Classical Movement of 1573-1592, see R. G. Usher,
Presbyterian Movement, 1905, pp. xli, 9, 16, 19, 42, 94. For Giffard's reputation
see D'Ewes, Autobiography, ed. Halliwell, 1. 114.
82
Dedicatory Epistle.
» ej. i603, sig. A 3.
of them hanged at Chelmsford in 1582, and there were other

executions there in 1579 and 1589, It was an outbreak
in that same neighborhood in 1645 that started Matthew
Hopkins on his career and the evidence and confessions went
;
back, in some instances for twenty, and even thirty years.**

Giffard was a man of unusual humanity and strong common
sense, as his book shows. Yet he was heartily in favor of
a severer law than the statute of Elizabeth. The following
passage from his Dialogue is a precious document for our
"
present purposes. "Daniel is the speaker who presents
Giffard's own views; "M. B." is a schoolmaster.
Dan. A witch by the word of God ought to die the death, not because
she killeth men, for that she cannot (vnles it be those witches which kill
by poyson, which either they receiue from the diuell, or hee teacheth them
to make) but because she dealeth with diuels. And so if a lurie doe finde
proofe that she hath dealt with diuels, they may and ought to finde them
guiltie of witchcraft.
M. B. If they finde them guiltie to haue dealt with diuels, and cannot
say they haue murdered men, the law doth not put them to death.
Dari. It were to be wished, that the law were more [pjerfect in that
respect, euen to cut off all such abhominations. These cunning men and
women which deale with spirites and charmes seeming to doe good, and
draw the people into manifold impieties, with all other which haue famil-
iarity with deuels, or vse coniurations, ought to bee rooted out, that others
might see and feare. (Sig. K3.)
Here we have a highly intelligent preacher, a man of real

influence, pressing for precisely that change in the law
—
the extension of the death penalty to witchcraft that pro-
duces bodily injury without death which was actually—
embodied in the statute of 1604. And Giffard, like Perkins,
condemns the "white witch " utterly. The evidence speaks
for itself.
Perkins's Discourse and Giffard's Dialogue are strongly
contrasted works. Giffard addresses his teaching to the
unlearned he throws his book into the form of a conversa-
:
tion (so he tells us) "to make it fitter for the capacity of the
simpler sort." Perkins, on the other hand, writes for edu-
cated persons, —
for those who can follow a close-knit
scholastic argument. Giffard's aim is to free the minds of
^ A True and Exact Relation of the severall Informations [etc.] of the late
Witches, 1645, pp. 8, 15, 32, 34.
26 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JA]VIES THE FIRST
the common from needless terrors and to prevent the

pcoi)lc
shedding of innocent blood. Perkins, though he warns his
readers (as Gifl'ard does) against condemning on slender
evidence, is chiefly bent on defending the witchcraft dogma
against the assaults of Wierus and Reginald Scot. Yet both
Giffard and Perkins hold tenaciously to the inherited belief.
There are such things as witches they do ally themselves
;
with the devil they should be punished. And in this matter

of the penalty —
;
which is our chief concern at the moment —

Giffard and Perkins are in perfect accord. Both maintain
that all icitches ouglii to he put to death, irrespective of tite ques-
tion whether they have killed men by their arts or not. In other
words, the Elizabethan statute seemed to them insufficient,
and they urged the enacting of a law of greater severity.
Could there be more illuminating evidence Nothing can .?
be clearer than that, about the turn of the century, before

Elizabeth was dead and James had taken her place, there
was strong pressure for a revision of the witchcraft law, and
for revision in the direction taken by the statute of 1G04.
This was the kind of pressure to which the legislators yielded
— nothing loth, to be sure. They were not browbeaten by
King James, nor did they vote with an eye to the royal favor.
They followed their own consciences, incited by the feelings
of the populace and stimulated by the exhortations of the
gravest counsellors they knew.
The four books that we have just examined would suffice
to prove, even if there were no other evidence, that the acces-
sion of James found the English public —
both in its educated
and its uneducated classes —
deeply impressed with the
actuality of witchcraft as an ever-present menace to soul and
body, intensely excited on the subject, and pressing hard
for the extermination of witches.^-' But there is other evi-
dence in plenty. The records from loS'^ to 1603 abound in
specific cases. Two items call for particular notice the :
Darrel affair (1586-1601), and the affair of the Witches of

Warboys (1589-1593). There is a close psychological con-
nection between them.
*'
The general .inxicty of Englishmen as Eiizal)eth's death drew nigh is graphi-
cally described by Dekker, The Wonderful! Yeare, 1603 (Works, ed. Grosart, 1.
94-90). Such crises are always favorable to outbreaks of witch-prosecution.
John Darrel, a Cambridge graduate, was a Puritan

preacher in Derbyshire when (in 1586) he began his career
as a caster-out of devils. In 1598 he was summoned before
an ecclesiastical commission over which Archbishop Whit-
gift presided. Bishop Bancroft and Chief Justice Anderson
were members of the commission. More than forty witnesses
were called. Some of the demoniacs confessed fraud, and
Darrel, with his associate George More, was convicted of
^^
imposture and imprisoned. There had been an uproar over
the possessions and the exorcisms, and popular opinion sided
with Darrel. Samuel Harsnet, the cleverest of Bishop Ban-
croft's chaplains, was delegated to write up the case. His
famous Discovery came out in 1599, and was expected to
overwhelm Darrel with ridicule and odium. In the long run
it has had this result, for Darrel is usually treated nowadays
as an impostor. But it had no such effect at the time. Both

Darrel and More wrote long replies, and printed them sur-
reptitiously^ in defiance of the authorities.
Bancroft soon discovered that Harsnet's skirmishing
was not sufficient, and he brought his heavy troops into
action. Two treatises, of unimaginable ponderosity in style
and matter, each elaborated in concert by two preachers,
John Deacon and John Walker, came out in 1601.^^ Harsnet
had railed and ridiculed and "exposed," but he had steered
clear of dialectics. Deacon and Walker toiled to supply
the desideratum. Using all the scholastic machinery, they
tried to prove, by logic and Scripture, that there is no such
thing as demoniacal possession nowadays, and that Dar-
rel's demoniacs were either counterfeiting or else afflicted
with natural diseases. Darrel promptly replied to both
books, printing his answers surreptitiously, as before.
Strange as it may seem, Darrel has the best of the argu-
ment. For his opponents admit both too little and too
much. They admit too little, since they wish the fits to
appear fraudulent, whereas these were, beyond a shadow
of doubt, genuine hysteria, of which lying and imposture are
well-recognized symptoms. Darrel was sharp enough to see
that, as managed by his opponents, the hypothesis of fraud
^^
Harsnet, Discovery, 1599, pp. 8-9.
^'
Summarie Answere, and Dialogicall Discourses.
28 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAAIES THE FIRST
and the hypothesis of disease thwarted each other, and left

some kind of demonic assault in possession of the field.
They admit too much, because they themselves grant the
existence of evil spirits of vast power (nay, take pains to
demonstrate their existence), and because they accept
demoniacal possession as a fact in ancient times, though they
reject it for the present age. This rejection was, of course,
quite arbitrary, and their attempts to justif}^ it from Scripture
were pitifully weak. Barrel could appeal to facts and ex-
perience. His patients had manifested the same symptoms
as the demoniacs of old, and it was obviously absurd to force
a distinction. If the afflicted persons in Bible times were
possessed with devils, then his patients were possessed with

devils; and if he had relieved them (as he surely had), then
there was no reason which Deacon and Walker could make
valid to reject the corollary of dispossession.
But what connection has this strange affair with witch-
craft? Here we must walk circumspectly, for misappre-
hensions are rife. It is often inferred that Bancroft and
Harsnet, because they denounced Darrel and his patients
as tricksters, had no belief in witchcraft. This is a false
conclusion. A demoniac is not necessarily bewitched. He
may owe his dire condition to some witch's malice, or, on
the other hand, the devil may have assailed him immediately,
without a witch's agency. Further, there are many evil
things done by witches which have no reference to demoni-
acal possession. In all of Darrel's cases, to be sure, witches
were accused. To some extent, then, Bancroft and his
assistants were, in effect, attempting to discredit the witch
dogma, since they were attacking the genuineness, or the
diabolical origin, of certain phenomena ascribed, in these
particular instances, to witchcraft. But (and we cannot be
too careful in making the distinction) they did not deny either
the existence or the criminality of icitches in general, any more
than they denied the existence of wicked spirits. They strove
to explode the theory of demoniacal possession but they
;
did not attack the witchcraft dogma. Indeed, they took

care to avoid committing themscK'es on that head. For, even
if they had no faith in the dogma, they knew that to assail it
would throw them out of court, inasmuch as the belief in

witchcraft was, in some form or other, universal among all

classes and all
persuasions.
Further, Bancroft and his aids, in their opposition to
Darrel, were not espousing the cause of alleged witches,
—
or, if so, they were doing it in a purely incidental way. Their
object was quite definite and unconcealed. They were war-
ring against the Puritans
^^
and the Roman Catholics, whom
they regarded as foes to Church and State. Puritan
preachers and Roman Catholic priests both professed to cast
out devils. In Bancroft's eyes these were absurd pretensions.
Yet the people and many of the clergy were much impressed.
There was danger ahead, so the Bishop thought. A vigorous
campaign was necessary. But the campaign was political
and ecclesiastical, not humanitarian. Its aim was not to
save witches, but to crush exorcists. ^^
Here is a significant bit of evidence on this point. In
1602 Mary Glover, the daughter of a merchant in Thames
Street, had weird seizures, which she attributed to the malign
spells of Elizabeth Jackson, The neighbors were eager to
prosecute, but a physician informed Chief Justice Anderson
that "the maid did counterfeit." Anderson directed Sir
John Croke (Recorder of London) to summon the girl to
his chamber in the Temple and test the matter. Croke
"
^^
Phantastical giddy-headed Puritans" Archbishop Matthew Hutton of York
calls them in a letter to Whitgift, Oct. 1, 1603 (Strype's Life of Whitgift, 1718, p.
570).
*^
The exorcisms of the Jesuit Edmunds (alias Weston) and his associates in
1585 and 1586 were similarly attacked by Bancroft and Harsnet. See Harsnet's
famous diatribe, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, 1603 (£d edition,
1605). The Roman Catholics were no more convinced in this case than the Puritans
were in that of Darrel (see the references to Yepez and others in Mr. T. G. Law's
article on Devil-Hunting in Elizabethan England, in the Nineteenth Century for
March, 1894, 35. 397 ff.). On Sir George Peckham, who was involved in this affair,
see Merrimam, American Historical Review, 17, 492 ff. Compare Sir George
Courthop on the Nuns of Loudun (Memoirs, Camden Miscellany, 11. 106-109) ;
see also Evelyn's Diary, August 5, 1670.

Darrel's opponents did their best to stigmatize his principles and practices with
regard to demoniacal possession as identical with those of the Roman Catholic
Church. Thus Deacon and Walker, speaking of Darrel, inform their readers that
"he hath for a season (though feare and shame enforceth him now to pluck in his
head) very prowdlie ietted from countrie to countrie like a pettie new Pope among
his owne Cardinals; yea and that also in his pontificalities, portrayed and con-
triued after the new-found popelike cut" (Summarie Answere, 1601, Address to the
Reader).
did so in 1603, having both the maid and the witch present,
with divers neighbors and certain ministers. He was con-
vinced, by various drastic tests, that there was no imposture,
and committed Mother Jackson to Newgate. At the Re-
corder's instance, several ministers undertook to rehcve the
girlby fasting and prayer. They were completely successful.
One of them, Lewis Hughes, was despatched to Bishop Ban-
croft with the tidings. He was not well received. "I . . .
could have no audience," he writes, "and for my paines I was

called Rascall and varlot, and sent to the Gatehouse, where
hee kept me foure moneths." ^^ But Mother Jackson was
arraigned and convicted in due course. Bancroft, we ob-
serve, was certain that this was not demoniacal possession,
and he imprisoned the exorciser. But he made no effort,
so far as we can learn, to rescue the witch. He left her to
the courts with a good conscience.
This episode fell just after the so-called exposure of Darrel.
The date makes it instructive. The Recorder, we note, was
still a believer in possession, despite the arguments of Ban-
and so were many (perhaps most) of

croft's literary bureau,
the clergy. Indeed, we must not too hastily assume that
all the bishops even were ready to subscribe to Bancroft's
extreme tenets. Take the case of Thomas Harrison, the

Boy of North wich, in Cheshire. His fits began in 1600 or
1601 and lasted a year or two. He was kept for ten days in
the Bishop of Chester's palace and carefully watched, but
no fraud was detected. The Bishop (Richard Vaughan)
and three other commissioners issued an order that, "for
[his] ease and deliverance" from "his grievous afflictions,'*
public prayers should be offered for him in the parish church

"before the congregation so oft as the same assembleth."
They delegated seven clergymen to visit him by turns, and
"to use their discretions by private prayer and fasting, for
the ease and comfort of the afflicted." Some held, this
'"
Certaine Grievances, 1641. p. 20. See George Sinclair, Satan's Invisible World
Discovered, 1685, Relation XII (reprint, 1871, pp. 95-100; of. Ferguson, Publi-
cations of the Edinburgh Hibliographiral Society, 3. .'>(i-57); Commission on His-
torical MSS., 8th Report, Appendix, Part i., p. 228. An account of the arfair, by
George Swan, was published in 1(!()3, under the title, A True and Rricf Reijort, etc.
On Lewis Hughes see Kilfredgc, (Jeorge Stirk, Minister (reprinted from the Publi-
cations of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts), 1910, pp. 18-21.
document informs us, "that the child [was] really possessed

of an uncleane spirit." This Bishop Vaughan and the other
commissioners doubted. But they did not think he was
shamming. They had "scene the bodily affliction of the
said child," and observed in sundry fits very strange effects
and operations, they tell us, "either proceeding of natural vn-
knowne causes, or of some diabolical practise." ^^ And Har-
vey, one of the clergymen appointed by the Bishop to fast
and pray, wrote to a friend that nothing like the "passions
[i.e. sufferings], behavior, and speeches" of the boy had "ever
come under his observation or occurred in his reading."
"Few that have scene the variety of his fits, but they thinke
the divell hath the disposing of his body. Myselfe have
divers times scene him, and such things in him as are im-
possible to proceed from any humane creature. The matter
hath affected our whole countrv. The Divines with us
generally hold, that the child is really possessed."
^^
con- A
temporary memorandum assures us that once, when the
Bishop was praying with him, "the Boy was so outragious,
that he flew out of his bed, and so frighted the Bishops men,
that one of them fell into a sown, and the Bishop was glad
to lay hold on the boy, who ramped at the Window to have
^^
gotten out."
Joseph Hall, afterwards Bishop of Exeter (1627) and of
Norwich (1641), in disputing with a Belgian priest in 1605,
asserted roundly that "in our church, we had manifest proofs
^*
of the ejection of devils by fasting and prayer." Hall
was a firm believer in witchcraft and approved of the statute
of 1604.9^
5'
Darrel, Replie, 1602, p. 21.
^ Darrel, pp. 21-22,
John Bruen's memoranda, in William Hinde's Life of John Bruen (born 1560,
^^
died 1625), in Samuel Clarke, Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Part ii.. Book ii.,
1075, p. 95. Bruen (who was a Cheshire man) was an eyewitness of the boy's
fits, and his notes, as excerpted by Hinde, give a good idea of his ravings (pp. 9i-
96). The boy cried out against "the witch," but I do not find that anybody was
brought to trial.
Autobiography, Works, ed. Hall (1837), 1. xxi. Hall may have had in mind
9*
the case reported by Bishop Parkhurst in a letter to BuUinger, June 29, 1574
(Zurich Letters, ed. Hastings Robinson, 1842, No. 118, translation, p. 118, original,
p. 178).
245-246; Contemplations, Works, ed. 1628, pp. 1134-
95
Works, 6. 136-137; 7.
1135.
And now we will go back a few years in order to see what

the bishops and the judges thought, and how they acted,
when a case combining demoniacal possession with witch-
craft was not complicated by Puritan or Roman Catholic
exorcism. Let us examine, as briefly as may be, the cele-
brated case of the Witches of \Yarboys. The story has been
told again and again, but its actual bearing on the history of
English witch prosecution has never been pointed out.
The Warboys case lasted from 1589, when the fits of the
aflBicted persons began, until 1593, when the witches were
hanged.
Robert Throckmorton, Esquire, was a Huntingdonshire
gentleman of excellent family and connections. He was
of Ellington, but had removed to Warboys shortly before
our story begins. Both these places are near the county
town, and therefore not far from Cambridge. The disturb-
ance began in November, 1589, when Jane, Mr. Throck-
morton's daughter, a girl of about ten years, was attacked
with violent hysteria. In her fits, she called out against
Mother Samuel, an aged neighbor. Two first-rate physi-
cians of Cambridge were consulted. Dr. Barrow (a friend of
Mr. Throckmorton's) and Master Butler. The latter was,
I suppose, William Butler (1535-1018) of Clare Hall, of
whom Aubrey tells several amusing anecdotes. Aubrey
informs us that he "never tooke the degree of Doctor, though
he was the greatest physician of his time." ^^ Both Barrow
and Butler were baffled, and Barrow ascribed the fits to
witchcraft, remarking that he himself "had some experience
of the mallice of some witches." ^~ This speech is worth
noting, for it throws light on the state of mind of university
men. Within two months. Mistress Jane's four sisters —
ranging in age from nine to fifteen years were similarly —
attacked, and they all cried out against Mother Samuel.
This affliction lasted until April, 1593, or about three years
and a half. In the interval six or seven womenservants
(for the Throckmorton menage was of course somewhat
unstable) suffered from just such fits,
—
and also the wife
of one of the girls' maternal uncles, Mr. John Pickering of
««
Brief Lives, ed. Clark, 1. 138.
" The Witches of Warboys. 1593, sig. B2 r".
Ellington. Mother Samuel was believed to be the cause of

it all.Yet the children's parents acted with exemplary
caution. They had no wish to prosecute Mother Samuel,
but treated her kindly and gave their attention to caring
for the girls and urging her to confess. Her confession and
repentance, it was hoped, would put an end to the fits.
About Christmas, 1592, Mother Samuel admitted her
guilt. Even then there was no immediate thought of bring-
ing her to justice. She was in great distress of mind, and
both Mr. Throckmorton and Dr. Dorington, the parson of
Warboys, exerted themselves to give her Christian conso-
lation as a repentant sinner. However, she almost imme-
diately retracted, whereupon Mr. Throckmorton, losing
patience at last, took her before the Bishop of Lincoln (Will-
iam Chaderton) and certain justices. She again made ad-
mission of guilt. Soon after the girls fell into their fits
afresh, and they now accused the old woman of the death
of Lady Cromwell, the second wife of Sir Hemy Cromwell
of Hinchinbrook, the great landowner of those parts, known
for his splendor as the Golden Knight.
The Cromwells and the Throckmortons were friends, and,
in September, 1590, Lady Cromwell, being then at Ramsey,
only two miles from Warboys, had made a call of sympathy
on the family. Mother Samuel, who lived next door, had
been summoned. The Samuels were Sir Henrv's tenants,
and the lady spoke roughly to the old woman, accusing her
of witchcraft, and snatched off her cap and clipped off a
lock of her hair. This she told Mistress Throckmorton to
burn. Mother Samuel uttered some words which, when
later remembered, passed for the damnum minatum. That
night Lady Cromwell was strangely attacked, and she died
—
after an illness of a year and a quarter, that is, about the
beginning of 1592. Nobody appears to have connected
Mother Samuel with her death until, in 1593, the afflicted
girlscharged her with it in their ravings. They extended
the accusation to John Samuel, her husband, and Agnes,
her daughter. All three were tried at Huntingdon before
Justice Fenner on April 5th, 1593. Mother Samuel confessed,
and, with her husband and daughter, was hanged, according
to the Elizabethan statute. There was no doubt of their
34 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JiVJVIES THE FIRST
guilt in anybody's mind. Mother Samuel herself thought

the girls bewitched, and old Samuel was finally convinced
that his wife was guilty.
Several causes combined to make this the most momentous
witch-trial that had ever occurred in England. The long
continuance of the phenomena and the station of the victims
were alone sufficient to give the affair wide currency. The
family was connected with many persons of importance.
Mr. Robert Throckmorton was related to the Warwickshire
and the Gloucestershire Throckmortons. One of his first
cousins, also named Robert, lived at Brampton, Northants,
close by, and often witnessed the girls' fits. The girls'
maternal uncle, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Gilbert Pickering of
Tichmarsh, and his brothers, John and Henry, were deeply
interested, and gave evidence at the assizes. So did Dr.
Francis Dorington, the Warboys rector, who was the hus-
band of Mr. Throckmorton's sister. Robert Poulter, vicar
of Brampton, another witness, was also connected with the
^^
family. Francis Cromwell, Sir Henry's brother, was one
of the justices to whom Mother Samuel confessed. The
Cromwells were among the best-known commoners in the
kingdom. Dr. Dorington's brother John, a Londoner,
visited the children in their attacks, and of course he talked
of the affair in the capital.
The connections with Cambridge were also very intimate.
The physicians consulted by Mr. Throckmorton, as we have
noticed, lived there, and they were both university men.
Dr. Francis Dorington, the parson of Warboys, who had
married ]\Ir. Throckmorton's sister, and Thomas Nutt, the
vicar of Ellington, were also Cambridge graduates. ^^ Both
were deeply interested in the case, and gave evidence at the
trial. Henry Pickering, one of the children's maternal
'*
See the Throckmorton pediRree (drawn up by Robert Throckmorton himself
in 1613) in Charles's \'isitation ofthe County of Huntingdon, ed. Ellis, Camden
Society, 1849, pp. 123-121, and the Pulter pedigree, in the same, p. 101. Cf.
the Pickering pedigree in Bridges, Northamptonshire, 2. 383-385.
" Dorington was A. 15. 1555, Fellow of St. Catherine's
College 1558, A.M. 1559,
S. T. B. Queen's College 15G5. S.T.P. 1575. Nutt matriculated at Peterhouse
1568; he was A.B. 1573, A.M. 1577. For this information, as well as the uni-
versity record of Henry and Thomas Pickering (the editor of Perkins's Discourse),
I am indebted to the kindness of the Registrary, Dr. J. N. Keynes, and the
good
offices of Professor Skeat.
uncles, was at Christ's College when the fits began. ô" He

not only visited the Throckmortons in 1590, "being then
a Scholler of Cambridge," and stayed there three or four
days, but he took two other scholars of his acquaintance to
see the witch, and we have a pretty full account of the inter-
view. Mr. Pickering was fully persuaded that Goody
Samuel was a witch. Being somewhat moved, he told her
that "there was no way to preuent the iudgements of God,
but by her confession and repentance which if she did not
:
in time, he hoped one day to see her burned at a stake, and

he himselfe would bring fire and wood, and the children should
bio we the coales." ^°^ This Mr. Henry Pickering became,
in 1597, rector of Aldwincle All Saints, in Northamptonshire.
His daughter Mary married Erasmus Dryden (son of Sir
Erasmus), and became the mother of the illustrious poet,
who was born at the parsonage house of Aldwincle All Saints
in 1631. ^"2 Thus it appears that the five tormented Throck-
morton girls were first cousins of the poet's mother, and that
Mrs. Throckmorton was his great-aunt. We note that
William Perkins, whose treatise on witchcraft we have exam-
ined, was a fellow of Christ's College during most of the time
when these fits were going on. It is curious, too, that the
publisher of Perkins's posthumous treatise (another Cam-
bridge man) was Thomas Pickering,
^''^
doubtless a relative,
though we cannot be certain of that. Both Sir Henry Crom-
well and his son Oliver had been at the university.
The Warboys case, then, demonstrably produced a deep
1°°
Henry Pickering was a younger son of Sir Gilbert Pickering, Knight, of
Tichmarsh, Northamptonshire. He matriculated at Christ's College, as a Pensioner,
March 16 1582-3, was A.B. 1586, A.M. 1590, and incorporated at Oxford 1593
(see note 99, above).
^"1
Witches of Warboys, sig. E3.
^"^
The year when Pickering became rector of Aldwincle All Saints, and the
date of his death (1637, aged 75), were first correctly given (from his tombstone)
by Mr. W. D. Christie in the Globe Edition of Dryden's Poetical Works, 1870, p.
xvi., note f-
1°^
Thomas Pickering was admitted at Emmanuel College as a Pensioner in 1589.
He was A.B. 1592, A.M. and Fellow 1596, B.D. 1603. He became Vicar of Finch-
ingfield, Essex, March 9, 1605-6, and died there in 1625. For these facts I am
indebted to the Registrary of the University, Dr. J. N. Keynes, and to Mr. J. B.
Peace, Bursar of Emmanuel. His marriage license was issued May 4, 1611;
his will was proved 1627, and administration was granted March 13, 1625-6
(Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, 6. 299).
36 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAJVIES THE FIRST
and lasting impression on the class that made laws. The

gentlemen concerned were not ignorant country squires in
the remote districts; they were intelligent, well-educated
men, in close contact with one of the universities and with
the capital.
Nor was the impression allowed to die out. It was per-
petuated in two ways
— by a remarkable book and by a
permanent foundation. The presiding judge, Edward Fen-
ner, was so much struck by what he had seen and heard (for
the children had their fits in his presence) that he joined
with others to further the publication of a narrative, The —
Most Strange and Admirable Discoverie of the Three Witches
of Warboys, —
which was printed in London in 1593. Full
notes had been kept from the outset (as befitted the intelli-
gence and education of the families concerned) and these
were used by the author. This is no mere catchpenny tract.
It is a careful and temperate report of the girls' malady from
first to last. Nothing comparable to it, considered as a
report on a long-continued case of epidemic hysteria, had
ever appeared in England. The details, at which modern
writers on witchcraft are wont to jeer, are no more ridiculous
than the details in recent and esteemed treatises on la grande
hysterie, or on multiple personality. That it kept the War-
boys case alive long after the accession of James I. is certain,
for Dr. John Cotta, in 1616 and again in 1624, refers to the
"Treatise of the Witches of Warbozys" as authoritative.^"*
He had no doubt whatever that the Throckmorton girls were
be witched. ^°^
Finally, Sir Henry Cromwell took effectual measures for
10*
Triall of Witch-craft, 1616, p. 77.
'"*
Samuel Ilarsnet, when in full cry after Darrel, did not venture to attack the
Warboys case directly. True, he refers slightingly to the printed narrative as a
"silly book," but in the same breath he suggests that one of Darrel's patients had
taken a leaf out of it. And Darrel, in replying, taunts Harsnet with not daring to
assail the case openly. That Mr. Throckmorton's children, says Darrel, "were
tormented by the diucll, even 5. of his daughters, it is notoriously knowne, and
so generally receaued for truth, as the Dislcovercr]. himselfe [i.e. Harsnet] dareth not
deny it, though fayne he would, as appeareth by his nibling at them" (Detection
of Harshnct, 1600, p. ."Ô; cf. pp. 20-22, 36, 40). And again, he does not hesitate
to declare that Harsnet refrained from accusing the Throckmorton girls of counter-
feiting because he did not dare: "He thought it best and meet for his safety
becaus they were the children of an Esquire, not to say so in plaine tearmes" (p. 21) .
perpetuating the impression made by the long-continued

phenomena, the trial, and the book. Certain goods and
chattels of the executed felons were forfeited to him as lord
of the manor. He disdained to keep the money and wished
to devote it to public uses. Hence he established an annual
sermon at Huntingdon, to be delivered by a fellow of his own
college. Queen's of Cambridge. The appointee was to
"preache and invaye against the detestable practice, synne,
and offence of witchcraft, inchantment, charm, and sorcereye."
The sermon was maintained until 1812, but toward the end
its burden was turned to the explosion of the old belief.^°^
And now, when we come to apply what we have observed
of the state of educated public opinion and to estimate its
presumable effect on the legislators of 1604, who passed the
revised statute, we are struck with a fact which all investi-
gators have overlooked or ignored. Tivo gentlemen were
sitting in the House of Commons who had the strongest personal
interest in the Warhoys case. The Samuels had been hanged,
not for tormenting the Throckmorton girls,^*^^ but for be-
witching Lady Cromwell to death. As we run our eye down
the list of Members of Parliament, it is arrested by two
names, —
Sir Oliver Cromwell and Henry Cromwell, one —
the member for the County of Huntingdon, the other for
the borough. These were sons of that Sir Henry whose wife
had died (as all believed) from Mother Samuel's arts, and
who had founded a sermon in perpetual memory of the
murder.
Both Sir Oliver and Henry Cromwell might therefore be
presumed to have an effective knowledge of the case. But
we are not left to conjecture. Their uncle, Francis Crom-
well, was one of the justices to whom Goody Samuel con-
fessed.^"^ Mr. Henry Cromwell himself had visited the
Throckmorton house with one of Sir Henry's men and had
observed two of the girls in their fits.^°^ This was in 1593,
shortly before the actual trial, and after the girls had begun
to accuse the Samuels of Lady Cromwell's murder. As for
"« H. Gray, Queen's College, 1899, pp. 128-129.

J.
offence, under the Elizabethan statute, was punishable only by im-

1°'
That
prisonment and the pillory, for none of the girls had died.
"8
Sig. I r°; cf. sig. P 2 v°. Sig. N3.
!"=•
Sir Oliver, his wife had accompanied her mother-in-law on

the fatal visit to the Throckmortons, and had been present
at her interview wîth Goody Samuel. That night, Lady
Cromwell was "strangly tormented in her sleep, by a cat
(as she imagined) which mother Samuel had sent vnto her."
Mistress Oliver Cromwell was sleeping in the same bed
(her husband being from home), and was awakened by the
"strugling and striuing of the Lady and mournfull
. . .
noise, which shee made speaking to the cat, and to mother

Samuel." Mistress Oliver roused her mother-in-law, who
told her all about her dream. Lady Cromwell had no more
sleep that night, and soon after sickened, as already told.^^"
We may be sure that when Mr. Oliver Cromwell returned, he
was put in full possession of both ladies' experiences. Surely
neither Sir Oliver Cromwell nor his brother stood in need of
instruction in the witch dogma from James I., or required
any royal influence to persuade them to vote for the statute
of 1604.
It is worth while to follow the clue a
little farther, and to
glance at the parliamentary history of the statute. Most

writers have been quite innocent of any knowledge that it
even had such a history. Yet there it stands in the Lords'
and Commons' Journals, and an instructive history it is.
The bill originated in the House of Lords. The first read-
ing took place on March 27, 1604. On the 29th it was read
a second time and referred to a committee consisting of six
earls, sixteen other peers, and twelve bishops. The com-
mittee was to have the most expert advice conceivable, and
to that end an imposing array of legal talent, learning,
and experience was requested "to attend the Lords" in
their deliberations. Here is the list the Chief Justice of
:
Common Pleas (Anderson), the Chief Baron of the Ex-

chequer (Sir William Peryam), two justices of the King's
Bench (Sir Christopher Yelverton and David Williams),
Serjeant Croke, the Attorney-General (Coke), and Sir John
Tindall, a distinguished ecclesiastical lawyer. Nor was all
this a mere flourish. The committee and its eminent coun-
sel took their duties seriously. They rejected the draft that
110
Sig. E 3 r°
had been referred to them, and, on the 2d of April, the com-

mittee reported a new bill, "framed by the committee."
This was brought into the Lords by the Earl of Northumber-
land. It received certain amendments, and, on May 8th,
after the third reading, was passed and sent to the House of
Commons. Here, too, there was careful deliberation. On
May 11th the bill had its first reading and on the 26th it was
;
read a second time and referred to a committee of seventeen,

including the Recorder of London and two serjeants-at-law
(Hobart and Shirley), which was directed to meet on the
first of June in the Middle Temple Hall. On the 5th, Sir
Thomas Ridgeway, for the committee, reported the bill
"with alterations and amendments." On June 7th it came
up for the third reading, was passed as amended, and on
the 9th was sent up to the Lords. ^^^
This bare statement of recorded facts disposes of the myth
that King James was the author or the father of the statute
which has so long been associated with his name and fame.
Whether the measure was good or bad, —
whether its re-
sults were great or small, —
the Lords and Commons of
England, and not the king, must shoulder the responsi-
bility.^^^ And it is in complete accord with what we should
expect from the caution with which both houses proceeded
and the care which their committees took, that the statute,
when finally it left the hands of Parliament, was not really
a new law at all, but simply a modification and extension
of the statute of Elizabeth.
Two names on the Lords' Committee catch the eye imme-
diately,
—
the Earl of Derby and the Bishop of Lincoln.
Ten years before, in 1594, a short time after the witches of
Warboys were hanged, Ferdinando, fifth Earl of Derby, had
died at Latham after a ten days' illness. The physicians
(he had four) ascribed his disease to a surfeit combined with
111
Lords' Journals, 1. 267, 269, 271, 272, 293, 294, 316; Commons' Journals,
1. 204, 207, 227, 232, 234, 236.
11^
The object of the law was not to multiply culprits, but to deter men from com-
mitting the crime. The idea that very great severity defeats its object did not then
obtain among penologists. Take an example of the temper of intelligent men in
this regard. In May, 1604, William Clopton writes to Timothy Hutton :
—
"There
isan act passed to take away the clergie from stealers of sheep and oxen, which will
do much good" (Hutton Correspondence, Surtees Society, 1843, p. 195).
over-exertion. But there were grave suspicions of sorcery.

The had dreamed strange dreams; he had been
earl
"crossed" by an apparition "with a gastly and threatning
countenance." An image of wax was discovered in his
bedroom. "A homely Woman, about the age of fifty yeeres,
was found mumbling in a corner of his honours Chamber,
but what God knoweth." Three other suspected witches
appear in the case at divers times and in sundry manners.
The "cryed out that the Doctors laboured in
earl himself
vaine, because hee was certainely bewitched." In the end,
the opinion seems to have prevailed that he died from natural
causes.^^^ But it would be extraordinary if all the circum-
stances had not made a profound impression on his younger
brother, who succeeded him, and this is the Earl of Derby
whom we have noted in the Lords' Committee on the bill.
Another person who must also have been deeply affected
by these strange happenings was the Bishop of Chester,
who attended the dying man. This was Dr. William Chader-
ton, who was translated to Lincoln in 1594, and he, too, sat in
the Lords' Committee.
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who reported the
second draft from the committee, was a famous student of
the occult sciences and was popularly known as "the Wizard
Earl." Like Dr. Dec, he believed that his own investiga-
tions were free from the taint of diabolism, but, like Dee,
he must also have felt convinced that there were others who
did traflBc with the infernal powers, and that such persons
deserved punishment.
Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, another member of
the Lords' Committee, had the reputation of being the most
learned of the peers. He was a firm believer in the actuality
of communication between mortals and wicked spirits.
In his erudite Defensative against the Poyson of Supposed
Prophecies, written in 1582 and 1583, he declared that one
of the means "whereby the contagion of vnlawfull Prophesies
is conueyed into the mindes of mortall men, is conference
with damned Spirits or Familiars, as commonly we call
them." ^" And he unhesitatingly ascribed the clairvoyance
"'
Stow, Chronicle, ed. Howe, 1631, pp. 767-768. "«Ed. 1620, p. 81.
of cunning men and women to such revelations, taking

—
as an example their disclosure of the thief in a case of cutting
a purse. ^^^
Let us turn to the Commons' Committee. Here we find
several interesting names. Sir Roger Aston had been Eng-
lish resident in Scotland. This may be held to be a two-
edged argument, but we do not need it, for there are plenty
more. Two of the most notoriously witch-haunted counties
in England were Lancaster and Essex. Now, Lancashire
was represented on the committee by Sir Richard Moly-
neux of Sefton. As for Essex, not only was the county mem-
ber, Sir Francis Barrington, on the committee, but also Sir
Robert Wroth, who lived principally at Loughton Hall, in
Essex. He was a man of forty-odd when Brian Darcey's
great St. Osyth cases were tried and ten witches were hanged
at Chelmsford in that county. Other executions at Chelms-
ford took place in 1579 ^^^ and 1589.^^^ Giffard, we remem-
ber, was an Essex preacher, and his Dialogue, published in
1593 and reissued in 1603, had urged the sharpening of the
statute in the precise direction which this parliament took.
Wroth had large possessions in Middlesex and sat for that
county.^^^ Now of the twenty-nine years from 1573 to
1601 there were witch-records for thirteen. Serjeant Ho-
"° P. 85.
Bishop Bancroft and the Earl of Shrewsbury were on the Lords' Commit-
tee. The bishop had been the leading spirit in
the prosecution of Darrel, and the earl
had been present at the trial. But this is no reason why they should have opposed
the statute. As we have seen, Bancroft was a prosecutor of exorcists, not a pro-
tector of alleged witches. In the Synod called by James (which sat concurrently
with Parliament, and broke up on July 9, 1604, two days after Parliament rose)
a canon (written by Bancroft) was adopted, forbidding clergymen, without proper
license, "to attempt upon any pretence whatsoever, eyther of Possession or
Obsession, by fasting, and prayers to cast out any Devill or Devills" (Canon 72,
Constitutions and Canons of the Synod of 1603, ed. 1633; cf. J. W. Joyce, Eng-
land's Sacred Synods, 1853, pp. 620 ff. Cardwell, Synodalia, 2. 583 S.). This
;
canon was in no wise inconsistent with the statute, nor can it have been so regarded
by the twelve bishops who sat on the Lords' Committee. At all events, James I.
showed himself quite as skeptical as Bancroft in cases of alleged possession (see
pp. 47 below).
ff.,
"^
Collier, 2 Notes and Queries, 12. 301 ; Arber, Stationers' Register, 2. 352,
358.
"'
Arber, 2. 525 ; cf. Collier, as above, p. 301.
"* On
the Wroth family see a series of papers by Mr. W. C. Waller in the Trans-
actions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, 8. 145 ff., 345 ff. 9. 1 ff. ;
On Robert Wroth (1540-1606) see especially 8. 150 ff.

Sir His son Robert (1576-
1614, knighted in 1603) was one of Ben Jonson's patrons (see 8. 156 ff.).
bart (later Sir Henry) was likewise a committeeman. What

he thought of witchcraft we may infer from his conduct when
Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer at the trial of Margaret
and Philip (i.e. Philippa) Flower, who were executed in
1619 for bewitching to death two sons of the Earl of Rut-
land. ^^^ Nobody will suggest that he learned his creed from
James I. If any should be so absurd, we may balance him
by Sir Humphrey Winch, also an M.P., though not on the
committee, who, in 1619, incurred the wrath of the king by
condemning nine witches to death in a case which James
himself shortly after exposed as an imposture. We shall
return to this in a moment.^-'^ There was a Mr. Throck-
morton on the committee. This was John Throckmorton,
M.P. for Gloucestershire. The Throckmortons of that coun-
ty were related to those of Huntingdonshire. It is likely
that Mr. John had felt some share of the universal interest
roused by the experiences of his distant kinswomen of War-
boys. The Recorder of London also sat on the Commons'
Committee. This was Henry Montagu, ^-^ afterwards Chief
Justice of the King's Bench (1616) and Earl of Manchester
(1626). He was of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he
had been a younger contemporary of William Perkins, whose
strong advocacy of more stringent laws against witchcraft
we have already noted. Later, he was a patron of Thomas
Cooper, whose book about witchcraft we have examined.
^-^
James Montagu, who preached Perkins's funeral sermon,

was his younger brother. ^^^ Their father. Sir Edward Mon-
tagu, was likewise on the Commons' Committee. Can there
be any doubt of the opinions of this family on the subject
of witchcraft ? Must we look to James I. as the source of
their views ? Finally, we note with peculiar interest that
the bill was reported, with amendments, from the committee
to the House by Sir Thomas Ridgeway, of Devon, before
whom, in 1601 and 1602, were taken an extraordinary series
1" See ^° See
pp. 59-60, below. pp. 57-59, below.
^' He became Recorder in 1603 (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1603-
1610, pp. 10, 14 ;
cf. Foss, Judges of England, 6. 167 ff.
; Peile, Biographical Regis-
ter of Christ's College, 1910, 1. 173).
^Life of Cooper in Dictionary of National Biography.
^^ See
p. 21, above. Cf. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1910,
1. 181.
of examinations accusing the Trevisard family of witch-

craft.124
It is time to study the advisory board of legal experts
who were attached to the Lords' Committee on this most
earnestly debated bill. Three of these attract our particular
attention, Chief Justice Anderson, Serjeant Croke, and Coke,
then Attorney-General.
Sir Edmund Anderson had been chief justice for twenty-
two years. He knew all about the workings of the Eliza-
bethan statute. At first sight one might think him opposed
to witch prosecution, for he had taken a leading part in
"exposing" Barrel, and he had a lively sense of the danger
of popular excitement to the innocent in such matters. But
a moment's thought will set us right. Perkins and Giffard
and Dr. Cotta —
nay, James himself, as we shall see pres-
ently
^^'^ —
thought that judges ought to be very careful
to sift the evidence and protect the innocent, but none of
them doubted that a witch whose guilt was proved ought to
be condemned. So the majority of civilized men to-day
believe in the wisdom and righteousness of the death pen-
alty for a certain grade of crime, but all are agreed that care
should be taken to clear the innocent. An instructive ex-
ample of the distinction that we must make may be seen in
the person of Sir Edward Bromley. At the same assizes,
in 1612, Bromley presided over two sets of witch-trials, those
of the Pendle witches and those of the witches of Salmes-
bury. In the Pendle cases, he could not doubt the evidence,
and he condemned ten to death with complete assurance that
he was doing right. Cotta, himself, in 1616, speaks of the
evidence in these cases with regard to sorcery by means of
" "
"pictures of waxe as "proued by "testimonies beyond
In Salmesbury cases, on the contrary,
^-"^
exception." the
Bromley saw reason to suspect the veracity of the chief wit-
ness for the prosecution, and followed up the clue so well that
the defendants were acquitted.^" Students of demonology
will not forget that modern writers have seen fit to gird at
Bromley, not only for his supposed cruelty and superstition

^ See p. 17, above.
^^ ggg
pp. 48, 53, 58, 63-64, below.
126
Triall of Witch-craft, p. 90.
127
Potts, Wonderfull Discoverie, 1613, sigs. K3-N2.
in condemning the witches of Pendle, but also strange to

—
say
—
for the ground on which he first entertained the sus-
picion that led to the acquittal of the other group. But it
is hard to satisfy modern writers on witchcraft, who insist on
censuring the sixteenth and seventeenth century on a basis

of modern rationalism. It is quite certain that if some of
those who now sit in judgment on the witch-prosecutors had
been witch-judges, no defendant would ever have escaped.
But we must return to Chief Justice Anderson, who, as
well as Sir John Croke, sat on the committee of advisers to
the Lords. Anderson and Croke had been associated, in
1603, in the affair of Mary Glover, which we have already
considered. This happened before the accession of James.
Croke appears therein as a devout believer in both demoni-
acal possession and witchcraft, and there is no reason to sup-
pose that Anderson was in any way dissatisfied with his pro-
^^^
ceedings.
Now Coke, the Attorney General.
for There is a new
1604 (not found in the Elizabethan
provision in the statute of
law) imposing the death penalty on any one who shall "take
up any dead man, woman, or child out of his, her, or theire
grave, or any other place where the dead bodie resteth, or
the skin, bone, or any other parte of any dead person, to be
imployed or used in any manner of Witchcrafte, Sorcerie,
Charme, or Inchantment." Hutchinson ^^^ conjectured that
this provision was due to King James, noting that such
ghoulish outrages were a part of the confession of Agnes
Sampson, one of the first Scottish witches examined in the
king's presence in 1590.^^° I am willing to add to this guess
whatever support be derived from the fact that the
may
king, in his Dsemonologie, more than once adverts to the
witches' habit of "joynting," or dismembering, corpses. ^^^
But, when all is said and done, this is a poor refuge, in view
of what now appears to be the history of the statute, es-
pecially when one remembers that the use of the dead for
purposes of sorcery dates, not from the confession of Agnes
'28
See p. 29, above. 129
p 179
"0 See
Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, 1. 218, 233, 237, and especially 239 (cf. 2. 478) ;
Newes from Scotland, Sig. B3.

1" Ed.
1603, pp. 43, 58.
Sampson, but from the "backward and abysm of time." The

lawmakers, cleric or lay, did not learn of this habit from King
James, unless they were so ignorant as never to have heard
of Lucan's Erichtho,^^^ whom Marston actually brought upon
the stage at about this very time in a tragedy which contains
a speech, in description of the sorceress, that out-Lucans
Lucan.^^^ But we need not appeal to the classics. Sir
Edward Kelley, far-famed as Dr. Dee's skryer in crystallo-
mancy, had already emulated Erichtho. Years before,
"vpon a certaine night, in the Parke of Walton in le Dale,
in the county of Lancaster, with one Paul Waring," he had
"inuocated some one of the infernall regiment, to know cer-
taine passages in the life, as also what might bee knowne
by the deuils foresight, of the manner and time of the death
of a noble young Gentleman, as then in his wardship."
The black rites finished, Kelley learned of the gentleman's
servant about a poor man's corpse that had been buried in a
neighboring churchyard that very day. "Hee and the said
Waring intreated this foresaid seruant, to go with them to
the graue." The servant complied, "and withall did helpe
them to digge up the carcase of the poor caitiffe, whom by
their incantations, they made him (or rather some euill
spiritt through his Organs) to speake, who deliuered strange

predictions concerning the said Gentleman." All that we
know of the prodigious Kelley inclines us to credit him with
an attempt at necromancy on this occasion. Weever, who
told the tale in 1631, had it from the servant who was present,
as well as from the young gentleman to whom the servant
had revealed the affair.^^^ It is safe to say that the crime
of violating graves was as common in England as in Scotland.
It surely was an offence quite as worthy of the gallows as
sheep-stealing, or theft above the value of twelvepence. And
itwas natural enough to insert a clause to cover it in the
revised law. Now Coke was just the man to do this, for he
knew of a fourteenth-century case which showed that the law
"2
Pharsalia, vi., 507 ff.
1^
Sophonisba, act iv., scene 1, vv. 99-125 (Works, ed. Bullen, 2. 290-291).
1^
John Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 1631, pp. 45-46. Cf. Reginald
Scot, bk. XV., chaps. 8, 17 (ed. 1584, pp. 401 ff., 423 ff.)
; Baines, History of Lan-
cashire, ed. Harland, 1. 199.
was imperfect in this very point, and he reports the occur-

rence in his Institutes, in commenting on this provision in
the statute of 1604.
A man was taken in Southwark with a head and a face of a dead man,
and with a book of sorcery in his male, and was brought into the king's
"^ then chief but seeing no in-
bcncli before Sir John Knevett justice :
dictment was against him, the clerks did swear liim, that from thence-
forth he should not be a sorcerer, and was delivered out of prison, and the
head of the dead man and the book of sorcery were burnt at Tuthill at the
costs of the prisoner. So as the head and his book of sorcery had the same
punishment, that the sorcerer should have had by the ancient law, if he
had by his sorcery praied in aid of the devil. '^^
Who was so Hkely as Coke to instruct the Lords' Com-

mittee as to the defect in the former statute in this regard ?
At all events, his exposition of the statute of 1604 shows
how thoroughly he believed in witchcraft, and leaves no
doubt as to the general bearing of whatever advice he gave
the committee. Nor need we quote his celebrated charge
to the jury in Mrs. Turner's trial for the murder of Overbury,
as we might otherwise be tempted to do.^^^ Among the
magical exhibits at this trial was a parchment on which
"were written all the names of the holy Trinity; as also a
figure in which was written this word Corpus, and upon the
^''
'parchment was fastned a little piece of the skin of a man."
This was, it appears, a charm of Forman's. He certainly
did not import it from Scotland ^^^ !
I think we may now regard the following propositions as
proved (1) The last twenty years of Elizabeth's reign

:
were a time of intense and continuous excitement in the mat-

ter of witchcraft, with repeated trials and a good many
executions. (2) The doctrine was not dying out when James
came to the throne. It was held with great tenacity, not
only by the masses, but by a vast majority of the educated
"' Sir John
Knyvet was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1357 and
Lord Chancellor in 1372 (Campbell, Lord Chancellors, 1846, 1. 267-268).
"" Coke's
Institutes, Third Part, cap. 6. See Gentleman's Magazine, 1829,
Part ii., 99. 515.
"" Truth Brought to Light by Time, 1651, p. 140; Egerton Papers, Camden
Society, pp. 472-473.
"8 truth
Brought to Light, p. 1.38.
"' As to
Forman, sec pp. 49-50, below.
and influential,
— nobility, country gentry, divines, judges,
and citizens. The Elizabethan law was generally thought
(3)
to be imperfect, and there was strong pressure for new legis-
lation. (4) The statute of 1604 was carefully considered and
fully discussed. It was not a king's bill, nor was it rushed
through under royal whip and spur, or passed out of com-
plaisance to the new sovereign. There is no evidence that
the king took any particular interest in the act. It reflected
the conscientious opinions of both Houses of Parliament. ^^°
(5) It followed the language of the Elizabethan statute at
almost every point, though somewhat more severe. (6) In
its practical working, however, in James's time, the statute
of 1604 was not appreciably severer than the Elizabethan
law.
But the case against James I. as a witch-hunter during
his English reign is not merely destitute of every kind of
evidence in its favor, — it has to meet an overwhelming
array of direct proof on the other side. And to this evidence

we must now pass. It is quite conclusive.
First, we will consider certain pardons that are matters
of record. The list is short —
for there were few convictions
— but it is significant.^^^ On April 16, 1604, when the new
statute was still under deliberation, Christian, the wife of
Thomas Weech, County Norfolk, received the royal par-
of
don In 1608, Simon Reade was pardoned
for witch craft.^^-
for conjuration and invocation of unclean spirits. ^^^ This
case is mentioned by Ben Jonson in The Alchemist (1610).^^^
Reade was a medical practitioner and cunning man of South-
wark.^^5 One Toby Mathew of London had lost £37, 10
""No doubt James approved of the statute. He certainly believed in witch-
craftand thought that proved witches ought to be put to death. In the Basilikon
Doron, addressed to Prince Henry, he mentions witchcraft among the "horrible
crymes that yee are bounde in Conscience neuer to forgiue" (1599, Roxburghe
Club reprint, p. 37 London edition of 1603, p. 31). But the question is not whether
;
he was a behever in the actuality of such offences, but whether he was a bhnd and
maniacal persecutor who misled the English nation, to its everlasting disgrace.
"' Cf.
Inderwick, Side-Lights on the Stuarts, 2d. ed., p. 150.
"2 Calendar
of State Papers, Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 96.
"3
Calendar, p. 406.
^**
Act i., scene 2.
"^ Reade stood
suit with the College of Physicians in 1602 for practising without
a license and was cast, as Gilford remarks in his note on the passage in The Alche-
mist. In the pardon he is styled "in medicinis professor."
by and Reade invoked three devils

theft, Hea- —
shillings,
welon, Faternon, and Cleveton to learn the name —of the
thief and recover the money. There were several seances,
—
the first on November 8, 1606, the others before the 10th of
Apparently Mathew blabbed,
^^^
the following January.
perhaps because the devils did not find his money for him.
No doubt Reade, when he saw that his trickery was to cost
him his life, confessed that the conjuration was pure hum-
bug, and so was pardoned. In 1610, Christian Weech re-
ceived a second pardon, this time for the murder of Mary
Freeston by witchcraft.^^^ In 1611, William Bate, "in-
dicted twenty years since for practising of invocation of
^^^
spirits for finding treasure," was pardoned.
In Bate's
case the ground is expressly stated, the evidence was —
"found weak." Of course this was also the reason for royal
clemency in the other three cases. We have precisely the
same situation that confronts us in Jane Wenham's case,
in 1712, when the judge was dissatisfied with the verdict of
a credulous jury and saved the condemned prisoner in the
only way open to him, then as now, by procuring the royal
pardon.
The bearing of these records is unmistakable. They
prove both that James was no bigoted and undiscriminating
witch-finder and witch-prosecutor, and that the judges tried
to get at the truth in this crime as in others. Here, then, is
the place to quote a passage from Francis Osborne, with
whom King James was no favorite "What his judgment was :
of Witchcraft, you may in part find by his Treatise on that

Subject, and Charge he gave the Judges, to be circumspect
in condemning those, committed by ignorant Justices, for
Diabolical Compacts. Nor had he concluded his advice in
a narrower Circle (as I have heard) than the denial of any
such Operations, but out of Reason of State and to gratify :
the Church, which hath in no Age, thought fit to explode out

of the Common Peoples Minds, an Apprehension of Witch-
craft." ^^^
The latter part of this dictum may pass for what
"' The pardon, giving these details, is printed in Rymer's Foedera, 2d edi-
tion, 16. 666-667.
"' "«
Calendar, 1603-1610, p. 598. Calendar, 1611-1618, p. 29.
"9 IVIiscellaneous Works, 11th ed., 1722, 1. 25.
Essay 1,
it isworth. The whole passage is valuable for the light it

throws upon the king's reputation with his contemporaries.
They thought him skeptical rather than credulous.
There is a close relation between the general purport of Os-
borne's testimony and the attitude of James with regard to the
curative power of the royal touch. His incredulity on this
^'''^
point was manifested at the very beginning of his reign.

*'The King," WTote Scaramelli to the Doge of Venice, in 1G03,
shortly before the coronation, "says that neither he nor any
other King can have power to heal scrofula, for the age of
miracles is past, and God alone can work them. However,"
adds the Venetian, "he will have the full ceremony [sc. of
coronation, anointing included], so as not to lose this pre-
rogative [sc. of touching for the king's evil], which belongs
to the Kings of England as Kings of France."
^^^
And we
know that he actually touched for the evil on various occa-
^^^
sions, for reasons of state, knowing well that the ceremony
could not harm the sufferers and might work beneficially
upon them through the imagination. "He was a King in
understanding," says Arthur Wilson, "and was content to
have his Subjects ignorant in many things. As in curing
the Kings-Evil, which he knew a Device, to aggrandize the
Virtue of Kings, when Miracles were in fashion but he let ;
the World believe it, though he smiled at it, in his own

Reason, finding the strength of the Imagination a more
powerful Agent in the Cure, than the Plasters his Chirurgions
^^^
prescribed for the Sore."
Along with the pardons which we have noted may be
classed the toleration which James extended to Forman and
Lambe and Dee. This is a curious circumstance which has
never received the attention it deserves.
Simon Forman was undoubtedly a rascal ^^^ He seems, how-
.
ever, to have been a likeable fellow. Lilly's anecdote of his

predicting his own death is charming and proves that Forman
1*"
See Manly, Macbeth, 1900, pp. xvi.-xviii.
"1 Calendar of State
Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607, p. 44 (June 4, 1603).
152
In 1604, 1608, 1610, and 1617, for instance (Calendar, as above, 1603-1607,
p. 193; 1607-1610, pp. 116, 465; Eboracum, 1788, 1. 150).
153
History of Great Britain, 1653, p. 289.
154
See Mr. Lee's life of Forman in the Dictionary of National Biography, 19.
438 S.
had a good measure of hnnlwmie}^'" It also goes far to show

that he put some trust in his own occult powers, though in
the main he nuist have been a charlatan. Certainly he
passed for a sorcerer. For years he made a public profession
of necromancy and magic at Lambeth, and was much con-
sulted by the ladies. On the 26th of June, 1603, Forman
was licensed by the University of Cambridge to practise
medicine, and on the next day the university conferred upon
him the degree of M.D. How he contrived to obtain these
certificates of professional respectability is a puzzle. ^^^
King
James never molested Forman, and the Doctor died peace-
fully in 1611. The full extent of his rascality did not come
out until the trial of Mrs. Turner, in 1615, for the murder
of Overbury,^" but that makes no difference. He was a
notorious conjuror, and it would have been easy to find evi-
dence during his life that would have hanged him a hun-
dred times. ^^^
Dr. John Lambe was in the same kind of business as For-
man but was even less reputable. He was convicted at the
Worcester assizes on two separate indictments, each of them
for a capital crime. The first was for "wasting and con-
suming" Thomas Lord Windsor by witchcraft; the second
"
for invoking and entertaining" evil spirits. ^^^ Sentence was
suspended, and Lambe was imprisoned in Worcester Castle.
Shortly after, he was removed to the King's Bench in Lon-
155
William History of his Life and Times, 2d ed., 1715, p. 16.
Lilly,
156
Forman wastwice imprisoned, at the instance of the Royal College of
Physicians, as an imauthorized and ignorant practitioner (in 159,5 and 1596). In
1601 he was again complained of. In 1606 and 1007, after obtaining his Cambridge
degree, he was cited to appear before the College, but refused to obey. See the
records in the 8th Report of the Commission on Historical MSS., Appendix, Part i.,
p. -2^8.
'" Truth Brought to Light by Time, 1651, pp. 135-138; Letter from Thomas
Bone to Sir John Egerton, November 9, 1015, Egerton Papers, Camden Society,
pp. 470-473.
'**
See Lilly, pp. 12-16.
1^'
The indictments are printed (in translation) in A Briefe Description of the
Notorious Life of lohn Lambe, Amsterdam, 1628, pp. 3-6. They are not dated.
The bewitching of Lord Windsor is stated in the first indictment to have occurred
on December 16, 5 Jac. I. (i.e. 1607), and at divers times afterward; the second
indictment dates the invocation of evil spirits, May 13, 6 Jac. I. {i.e. 1608), and
before and after. Mr. Sidney Lee (Dictionary of National Biography, 32. 1) shifts
the second of these dates, inadvertently, from the offence to the iriaL We do not,
in fact, know when Lambe was tried, but it was before 1617.
don,"'' where he remained a long time. But his confine-

ment was not rigorous. He Hved in prison quite at his ease,
receiving his patients and cHents and doing a thriving busi-
ness as physician and sorcerer."^ He was convicted of a
rape committed while in confinement,"^ but the chief jus-
tice reported that the evidence was dubious, and in 1624
he was pardoned."^ Soon after, he was released from cus-
tody and took up his residence near the Parliament House."*
In 1628 he met his death at the hands of the London mob
while returning from a play at the Fortune.^^^ Lambe was
protected by Buckingham, and was known as the "Duke's
devil." ^^^ But Buckingham was not always friendly. Thus,
in 1625, the duke was clamorous against hini on account of
his connection with
Lady Purbeck's case. "If Lambe"
— so Buckingham wrote to Attorney General Coventry and
General Heath — "be allowed to get
Solicitor by saying off
he was only juggling [i.e. not really practising sorcery], . . .
the truth can never be known Lambe has hitherto, by such

;
shifts, mocked the world and preserved himself."

^^"
I am
far from maintaining that King James's indulgence to such
scoundrels as Forman and Lambe wasaltogether creditable
to him, but it
certainly tends to prove that he was not a rabid
^^^
prosecutor of witches and sorcerers.
IS" iî
Briefe Description, p. 14. Pp. 14 ff.
^^2
The indictment dates the ofPence June 10, 21 Jac. I., i.e. 1623 (Briefe De-
scription, p. 15). The conviction was in 1624 (Calendar of State Papers, Do-
mestic, 1623-1625, p. 485).
i«»
Calendar, 1623-1625, pp. 241, 243, 261, 266, 280.
1" Briefe
Description, 1628, p. 20.
i«*
The same, pp. 20-21 Rushworth, Historical Collections, 1. 618 (cf. 1. 391)
; ;
Reign of Charles I., continuation of Baker's Chronicle, ed. 1660, p. 493; Richard
Smith, Obituary, in Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. 2. Book xiv, p. 11; Jupp,
Historical Account of the Company of Carpenters, 1887, pp. 84-85.
^^®
Continuation of Baker's Chronicle, as above, p. 493. Cf. Fairholt, Poems and
Songs relating to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Percy Society, 1850, pp.
xiv.-xv., 58-63, 65.
16^
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1623-1625, p. 476. Lady Purbeck had
visited Lambe in prison to procure charms from him (p. 474 cf. p. 497).
;
^^ Another infamous
person who drove a thriving trade with the court ladies was
Mrs. Mary Woods, who practised her arts at Norwich, and removed to London
in 1612. She was involved in the alleged plot of the Countess of Essex to poison
the Earl. She was arrested and examined, but it does not appear that she was
proceeded against under the statute of 1604, although one witness declared that she
professed to have a familiar spirit. Obviously she was regarded as a mere charla-
tan, yet it would have been easy enough to hang her for a witch if the king had
Dr. Dee is in a different category, for he was a profound

scholar and a man of a sincere and simple character, it whom
would be profanation to class with Lambe and Forman. Yet
there is no manner of doubt that his occult experiments
(of which voluminous documentary evidence is still extant)
might have convicted him of sorcery on literally a thousand
counts. His sole defence would have been that he was in-
voking and consulting good angels, not demons, but the
theologians could have made short work of that allegation.
True, Dee had been examined on a charge of witchcraft in
the Star Chamber in 1555 and acquitted. ^^^ But his subse-
quent proceedings were enough to condemn him, and he
constantly had to protest against the aspersion of being "a
companion of Hell-hounds and conjuror of wicked and
damned spirits," ^^° and "the arche coniurer of this whole
kingdom."
^^^
In 1583 the mob had destroyed his library
at Mortlake.^"^ Anecdotes that descended to Aubrey give
ample testimony to his fame as a conjuror.^^^ Dee seems
to have been agitated by the passage of the statute of 1604,
for, on June 5, of that year, while the act was still in debate,
he petitioned King James to have him "tryed and cleared
of that horrible and damnable, and to him most grievous and
dammageable sclaunder, generally, and for these many yeares
last past, in this kingdom raysed and continued, by report
and print against him, namely, that he is or hath bin a con-
jurer or caller or invocator of divels."
^"^
No attention was
paid to his entreaty, but the king did not molest him, and
favored such a prosecution (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611-1618, pp.

134, 161, 173, 183, 187; Inquiry into the Genuineness of a Letter, etc., pp. 17-19,
Camden Miscellany, 5; Gardiner, History of England, 1603-1642, 4th ed.,
2. 169, note l).
'" See his own account of the affair in his
Compendious Rehearsall, 1592,
printed by Crossley, in Autobiographical Tracts of Dr. John Dee, pp. 20-21 (Chet-
hara Miscellany, 1), and cf. the Necessary Advertisement prefixed to his General
and Rare Memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, 1577 (Crossley,
p. 57). See also Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1550, p. 67; Charlotte
Fell Smith, John Dee, 1909, pp. 14-15.
''"
Dee's Preface to Henry Billingsley's translation of Euclid's Elements, 1571
(Smith, pp. 24-28).
171
Necessary Advertisement, 1577 (Crossley, p. 53).
"*
Compendious Rehearsall, 1592 (Crossley, pp. 27 ff.).
»"
Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 1. 212-214.
"*
Smith, p. 293.
he died in his bed James doubtless respected Dee's

in 1608.
learning, and he may have been assured of his innocence

by the aged scholar's friends, who were numerous and in-
fluential,
— Sir Julius Caesar, for instance. Indeed, Dee
was styled "the King his Mathematitian," ^^^ a title —
which appears to imply some degree of royal favor.
James's pardons and his toleration of Dee and Lambe and
Forman would go far to show that he was not a bigoted
witch-prosecutor. But there is evidence of an unequivocal
nature. It concerns the king's personal activity in the de-
tection of imposture. On this point the records are decisive,
and, when we consider the prevalent impression as to James's
character as a witch-finder, they are nothing less than as-
^^^
tounding.
First of all we have a charming letter from James to the
young Prince Henry. It bears no date, but unbiassed judges
put it at the very beginning of the reign, and Sir Henry Ellis
believes that it was written before the Prince had left Scot-
land.
My Sonne I ame glaid that by youre Letre I maye persave that ye

make some progresse in learning. ... I ame also glaide of the diseoverie
of yone litle counterfitte Wenche. I praye God ye maye be my aire [i.e.,
heir] in such discoveries. Ye have ofte hearde me saye that most miracles
nou a dayes proves but illusions, and ye maye see by this hou waire judgis
should be in trusting accusations withoute an exacte tryall and lyke- ;
wayes hou easielie people are inducid to trust wonders. Lett her be
kepte fast till my cumming and thus God blesse you my sonne.^"
;
"5
MS. College of Arms c. 37, 168, quoted by F. R. Raines, Rectors of Manches-
ter and Wardens of the Collegiate Church, Part ii, 1885, p. 110 (Chetham Society).
"* James has been derided for
maintaining the doctrine of witchcraft in the
Essex divorce case (see his answer to Archbishop Abbot in Truth Brought to Light
by Time, 1651, pp. 103 S.). This discredit, however, such as it is, is cancelled by
his conduct in the case of Sir Thomas Lake (involving a precisely similar allegation
of witchcraft), in which he showed much acumen in unraveUing a tangled skein of
malice and perjury. See Gardiner, History, 3. 189-194 (1895). Mr. Gardiner
remarks that James "prided himself upon his skill in the detection of impostures"
(3. 192).
'" Harleian MS. 6986, art. 40 (autograph), as printed by Sir Henry Ellis, Original
Letters, 1st Series, 1824, 3. 80-81. The letter may also be found in Birch, Life of
Henry Prince of Wales, 1760, p. 37 Letters to King James the Sixth, Maitland
;
Club, 1835, p. XXXV. (where it is said, erroneously, to be in reply to an extant letter

of January 1, 1603-4, from Prince Henry) Nichols, Progresses of James I., 1.
;
304 Halliwell, Letters of the Kings, 1848, 2. 102. Cf. Gifford's edition of Ford,
;
1. clxxi. (ed. Dyce, 1869, 3. 276) Quarterly Review, 41. 80-82.

;
54 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAIVIES THE FIRST
In 1604 we find James, in his Counterblast to Tobacco,

deriding exorcism in a style worthy of Bancroft and Harsnet.
"
O omnipotent power of Tobacco !" he ejaculates. "And
if itcould bj' the smoke thereof chace out deuils, as the smoke
of Tobias fish did (which I am sure could smel no stronger) it
would serue for a precious Relicke, both for the superstitious
Priests, and the insolent Puritanes, to cast out deuils
1^8
withal."
Another letter of the king's should be given in full, if space
allowed. It begins by reminding the recipient "how that
in late time we discovered and put to flight one of those coun-
terfeits, the like whereof ye now advertise us." "By this
bearer," adds King James, "we send unto you instructions
suited for such an occasion, willing you leave nothing untried
to discover the imposture." It appears that the patient was
a woman who lay in a trance and had supported life for a
long time on one small cup of wine. The king gives wise
directions and remarks that "miracles like those of which
you give us notice should be all ways and diligently tested."
And he concludes with the words, "It becomes us to . . .
lose no opportunity of seeking after the real truth of pre-

tended wonders, that if true we mav bless the Creator who
hath shown such marvels to men, and if false we may pun-
ish the impudent inventors of them." ^"^
In 1605 Sir Roger Wilbraham notes in his Journal, imme-
diately after telling a witch-story :
— "The King's maiestie,
sithence his happie comyng, by his owne skill hath discov-
ered 2 notorious impostures one of a phisicion that made
:
latyne & lerned sermons in the slepe which he did by secret

:
premeditacion thother of a woman pretended to be be-

:
witched, that cast up at her mouth pynnes, & pynnes were

taken by divers in her fitts out of her brest." ^^^
"8 Ed.
Arber, p. 108.
"^ Dated March 5th
(no year). Halllwell (from Rawlinson MS.), Letters of
the Kings, 2. 124-125. It does not appear to whom the letter was addressed.
Such cases of real or pretended fasting are common. See, for example, John
Reynolds, A Discourse upon Prodigious Abstinence occasioned by the Twelve
:
Moneths Fasting of Martha Taylor, the famed Derbyshire Damsell, 1^69.

180
Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham, 1593-1616, ed. by H. S. Scott, p. 70 (Cam-
den Miscellany, 10). This is clearly the case mentioned by Walter Yonge in his
Diary (ed. Roberts, Camden Society, 1848, p. 12). If so, the bewitched person
was "near kinswoman to Doctor Holland's wife, Rector of Exon College in
The first of these two impostors was Richard Haydoek

of New College, Oxford, the celebrated Sleeping Preacher.
He made a great noise in the world. In 1605 James sum-
moned him to court, where he preached three times. The
king felt sure he was shamming. He soon fathomed Hay-
dock's mystery, brought him to repentance, and treated him
kindly after wards.
^^^
The doctor's confession, addressed to
King James, is extant among the State Papers.^^^ Though
witchcraft was not involved, the incident throws light on the
king's frame of mind.
King James's detection of Haydoek took place in April,
1605. In November of the same year the Gunpowder Plot
was discovered. James, it will be remembered, boasted
rather pedantically in an address to Parliament that he had
unriddled a dark sentence in the Mounteagle letter and so
was in effect the discoverer of the conspiracy. ^^^ He made
similar pretensions in a conversation with Giustinian, the
Venetian ambassador.^^'* There is a plain connection be-
tween his pride in this exploit and the shrewdness he had
just exhibited in the affair of the Sleeping Preacher and in
that of the bewitched woman, for Salisbury gave out that
he and other Councillors had submitted the Mounteagle
letter to the king because of "the expectation and experience
they had of His Majesties fortunate Judgement in cleering

and solving of obscure Riddles and doubtful Mysteries." ^^^
It makes no difference whether this consultation was pro
Oxford." This was Thomas Holland, on whom see Wood, Athenae Oxonienses,
ed. Bliss, 2. 111-112; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 2. 731.
^^1
King James his Apophthegmes, 1643, pp. 8-9 Calendar of State Papers,
;
Domestic, 1603-1610, pp. 212, 213; Venetian, 1603-1607, pp. 238, 240-241;
letters in Lodge, Illustrations of British History, 2d ed., 1838, 3. 143-144, 153-
155, 157-160; Arthur Wilson, History of Great Britain, 1653, p. Ill; Baker's
Chronicle, ed. 1660, p. 431 Fuller, Church History, Book x., Century xvii., § 56, ed.
;
Brewer, 5. 450; Aubrey, MS. History of Wiltshire, pp. 362-363, as quoted by

Halliwell, Letters of the Kings, 2. 124, note; Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 2. 679;
Dictionary of National Biography.
1^^
State Papers, James I., Vol. 13. No. 80. It is an obscure and rambling
document.
King James his Speech to both Houses of Parliament on Occasion of the Gun-
'^^
powder-Treason, ed. 1679, p. 7 cf. Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham, pp. 70-71
;
(Camden Miscellany, 10).

184
Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1603-1607, p. 327 (cf. pp. 316-317).
Discourse, appended to King James his Speech (see note 183, above), pp. 28-
18^
29 (cf. pp. 30-31).

forma, mere courtly complaisance, or whether the Councillors

really got some help from the king. On either hypothesis, the
penchant of James for playing the detective is equally clear.
The second case mentioned by Wilbraham was pure witch-
craft. The symptom of vomiting pins was regarded by most
scholars as decisive against fraud. Thus Cotta, in 1616, in
enumerating various tests by which (in contradistinction
to swimming, scratching, and other things that he repudiates)
witchcraft may be recognized, accepts this as one that is
"palpable and not obscure to any eye without difficulty,

offering [itself] to plaine and open viewe."
^^^
It now ap-
pears that James, more than ten years before Cotta wrote,
had confuted this infallible test. Yet we are told that Cotta
"was in advance of his age," that "he published his book in
1616, when King James's doctrines prevailed in full force,
and it attracted little attention." ^^^ I agree that Cotta
was in advance of his age. Be it so but what shall we—
then say of James I. .'*
Another undated example is preserved by Aubrey. ^^ A

gentlewoman named Katharine Waldron, who "waited on
Sir Francis Seymor's lady of Marlborough," pretended to be
"bewitched by a certain woman." The phenomena were
similar to those in the case of Mary Glover, which misled the
Recorder of London in 1603.^^^ The king "detected the
cheat" by a clever, though somewhat indecorous, device.
More than once, when James was unable to investigate
these matters in person, he intrusted the business to some-
body else. Thus, in 1605, a warrant was issued "for such
sums as the Earl of Salisbury shall require, for the charges
of two maids suspected to be bewitched, and kept at Cam-
^^^
bridge for trial." Trial in this record of course does not
mean trial in court (for it was not a crime to be bewitched),
but test, investigation. Obviously it was thought that the
girls might be shamming. Again, in 1611, the Council sent
a letter to the Bishop of Bangor and the Judges of Assize
i8«
Triall of Witch-craft, p. 7G.
'^^
Wright, Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2. 144.
188
MS. History of Wiltshire, pp. 362-363 (Halhwell, Letters of the Kings, 2.
124, note).
'8''
See p. 29, above.
"0 Calendar of State
Papers, Domestic, 1603-1610, p. 218.
"
furCounty Carnarvon to search out the truth of a supposed
witchcraft committed on six young maids." ^^^ This was
another cautionary measure to prevent false accusation and
the arraignment of innocent persons. It reminds one of
the action of Charles I. in 1634, when he delegated Bishop
Bridgeman to investigate the second Pendle case,^^^ We
shall have occasion to consider the attitude of King Charles
^^^
presently.
And now we come to the most distinguished of all King
James's exploits in the detection of fraudulent bewitchment.
It is a case which, even if it stood absolutely alone, might
suffice, in the absence of adverse testimony, to clear his
reputation.
In 1616, on the 18th day of July, nine persons were hanged
at Leicester. Their crime was the bewitching of a boy of
thirteen or fourteen, named Smythe, ^^^ who suffered from
^^^
fits like those of the Throckmorton girls of Warboys.^^^
Indeed, the influence of that famous case is unmistakable.
Justice Fenner, in 1593, made old Samuel recite a formula
devised by one of the hysterical girls: "As I am a Witch,
and did consent to the death of the Lady Cromwell, so I
charge the deuil to suffer Mistress lane to come out of her
fitt at this present." ^^'^ Thereupon the girl was instantly
relieved. So at Leicester in 1616 the accused were obliged
to say, "I such a one chardge the hors [one of the devils], if
I be a wiche, that thou come forthe of the chilld," whereupon
young Smythe ceased to be tormented.
^^^
The judges were
Sir Humphrey Winch, Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir
Randolph Crew (Serjeant),
^^^
the former a member of—
the Parliament that passed the Statute of 1604.^°°
1"
Calendar, 1611-1618, p. 29.
"2
Calendar, 1634-1635, pp. 26, 77-79, 98, 129-130, 141, 152-153.
"3 See
p. 64, below.
^^*
On his identity see Kittredge, King James I. and The Devil is an Ass
(Modern Philology, 9. 195-209).
'^^
Letter from Alderman Robert Heyrick of Leicester to his brother Sir William
in London, dated July 18, 1616 —
the very day of the execution (printed by Nichols,
Leicestershire, Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*).
198
See p. 32, above.
19^
Witches of Warboys, 1593, sig. P2 r°.
^98
Heyrick's letter.
199
Nichols, Progresses of James I., 3. 193; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic,
1611-1618, p. 398.
200
He was M.P. for the Borough of Bedford (Members of Parliament, 1. 442 a).
About a month after the execution of these nine witches,

King James chanced to be at Leicester on a royal progress.
He stayed there not more than twenty-four hours. -°^ The
Smythe boy was still having his fits, and six more accused
persons were in jail awaiting trial at the autumn assizes.
Nobody can doubt what the issue would have been. But
now James intervened. I will let Francis Osborne (1593-
1659) tell the story. "The King being gratified by nothing
more than an Opportunity to shew his Dexterity in dis-
covering an Imposture (at which I must confess him the
promptest Man Living) upon his arrival convented the Boy.
Where, before him, (possibly daunted at his Presence, or
terrified by his Words) he began to faulter, so as the King
discovered a Fallacy. And did for a further Confirmation,
send him to Lambeth; where the Servants of Dr. George
Abbot,"^^^ did in a few Weeks discover the whole Deceit. And
he was sent back to his Majesty before the end of the Prog-
ress where, upon a small entreaty, he would repeat all his
;
Tricks oftentimes in a Day." ^°^

The result we learn from a contemporary letter written
by a Leicester alderman.^*'^ Five of the six alleged witches
were released without a trial the sixth had died in prison.
;
Nor did the king neglect to let the judges see that he was
not pleased with their lack of acumen. "Justice Winch,"
writes Secretary Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton on
October 12, "and Serjeant Crew are somewhat discoun-
tenanced for hanging certain Witches in their circuit at
Leicester; whereas the King, coming that way, found out
the juggling and imposture of the boy, that counterfeited
to be bewitched." ^^^
2"^
The king went from Nottingham to Leicester on August 15th, spent the
night there, and proceeded to Dingley, on the 16th (Nichols, Progresses, 3. 180-
181, cf. 3. 175).
'^"^
Archbishop of Canterbury.
2M
Essays (Miscellaneous Works, 11th ed., 1722, 1. 30-31).
2"^ Robert
Heyrick's letter, October 15, 1616 (printed by Nichols, Leicestershire,
Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*).
205
Nichols, Progresses, 3. 192-193; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611-
1618, p. 398. We can make out a satisfactory account of the case by comparing
Osborne with Heyrick's two letters (one of .July 18, the other of October 15, 1610,
both printed by Nichols, Leicestershire, Vol. 2. Part ii., p. 471*). I have followed
Heyrick (as being absolutely contemporary and on the spot) wherever he differs
King James's action in the Leicester case of 1616 took

instant effect. The clamor populace against witches
of the
was not but the judges henceforth used extraor-
silenced,
dinary circumspection. They had no mind to incur the royal
displeasure. The result should be carefully noted. From
July, 1616, until James's death on March 27, 1625, almost
exactly nine years, only five persons are known to have been
executed for witchcraft in England.^"^ Two of these were
hanged at Bristol in 1624, and I have no details.^"^ One
—
Elizabeth Sawyer of Edmonton — confessed
after convic-
tion. ^"^ The other two were Margaret and Philippa Flower,
who were executed at Lincoln on March 11, 1619. Their
case is very remarkable. A bare statement of facts will
prove how impossible it was for any jury to acquit them or
any king to show them favor. Incidentally, we should ob-
serve that they would have been hanged under the Eliza-
bethan statute.
Joan Flower was a foul-mouthed old woman, much given
to cursing, and suspected by her neighbors of being a witch.
She was incensed at the Countess of Rutland for discharging
her daughter, Margaret Flower, from service at Belvoir
Castle, though there were good grounds for it, and though
the Countess had treated the girl with much kindness. Soon
after, three of the Earl's children fell sick, and two of them
died, one his eldest son. The Earl, it seems, had no suspicion
against the Flowers. Ultimately, however, Joan and her
two daughters were arrested, doubtless as a result of local
gossip. Joan Flower was never tried for the crime. At the
time, as it appears, of her examination, she defiantly sub-
from Osborne. Heyrick does not mention the king, but Osborne's testimony as to
James's intervention is corroborated in all essentials by Chamberlain's letter of
October 12, 1616 (Nichols, Progresses, 3. 192-193; Calendar. 1611-1C18, p. 398).
Osborne, by the way, speaks of his narrative as follows "I will here relate a
:
story of my own knowledge" (p. 29).

2°5
Mr. William Wheater's statement that six persons suffered death for witch-
craft at York 1622 (Old Yorkshire, ed. by William Smith, 4. 266) is a mistake.
in
This was the Fairfax case. Six persons were indicted, but all of them were dis-
charged without a complete trial (see p. 63, below).
-"''
John Latimer, Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century, p. 91.
="8
There was no torture. She confessed to the minister, Henry Goodcole, for
her soul's sake. See Goodcole's narrative. The Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth
Sawyer, 1621, reprinted in The W'orks of John Ford, ed. 1895 (BuUen), 1. Ixxxi ff.
60 ENGLISH WITCHCRATT AND JAMES THE FIRST
jected herself to a strange test. She "called for Bread and

Butter, and wished it might never go through if she were
guilty of that wherevpon she was examined so mumbling :
it mouth, never spoke more words after, but fell doune

in her
and dyed as she was carryed to Lincolne Goale." Both her
^°^
daughters confessed and were hanged. There can be no
vestige of doubt in any unprejudiced mind that these three
women were guilty in intent. They had practised what
they supposed to be witchcraft in order to destroy the chil-
dren, and they believed they had succeeded. We may pity
them for their malicious infatuation, but we cannot deny
that their fate was deserved. Nor was it conceivable that
they should escape it when God himself seemed to have
pronounced their guilt.
Five executions, then, make the whole account for the last
nine years of King James's reign, and with regard to two of
these, there could be no suspicion of counterfeiting. The
Earl's children had really died, and the accused had certainly
tried to kill them by sorcery. Here there was no ground on
which the king's acumen in detecting imposture could work,
nor could any amount of caution on the part of the judges
avoid the plain conclusion. ^^°
209
The Wonderfull Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Philip Flower,
1619.
^'^
We may laugh at witchcraft, but it by no means follows that all the afflicted
persons were impostors or that the defendants were always guiltless. The children
who cried out on the Salem goodwives and the numerous other "young liars" (as
one unsympathetic writer has called them) were really afflicted, though the cause
was mistaken. Much of their play-acting was a part of their disease. As for the
witches themselves (I do not here refer to Salem in particular), it is clear that many
of them were malignant creatures who did what they could to get into communion
with the fiend and thought they had succeeded. As Mr. Andrew Lang well remarks,
"There can be little doubt that many witches were in intention malevolent enough.
They believed in their own powers, and probably dealt in poison on occasion"
(History of Scotland, 2. 352). Others were precocious experimenters in super-
normal mental states. I need but refer to Professor Wendell's suggestive essay
on the Salem witches (Stelligeri, 1893 cf. his Cotton Mather, pp. 93 fF.) and to
;
Mr. Brodie-Innes's paper on Scottish Witchcraft Trials, in which this fruitful

subject of investigation is broached, with illuminating remarks. Neither professes
to do more than raise the question. The undiscovered country of witch pathology
awaits its trained explorer. Meantime we may speak respectfully of some of our
elders —
Wierus, Scot, Webster, Bekker, and Meric Casaubon (not all of them
on the same side) —
who have made wise observations needing only to be translated
from the obsolete technical language of their day in order to appeal to the modern
alienist. For cases of genuine and indubitable attempts at sorcery, see, for example.
But the effect of King James's rebuke of the Leicester

justices is visible not only (by inference) in the lack of exe-
cutions. It may also be traced in more positive ways. In
1620 occurred the notorious fraud of William Perry, the
Boy of Bilson. The supposed witch v/as acquitted at
the Stafford assizes, August 10, 16'20, and the judges in-
trusted Perry to Bishop Morton, who was present. Morton
detected the trick, and at the next summer assizes, June 26,
1621, the boy made public amends, asking forgiveness of the
alleged witch, who was there to receive this rehabilitation.
^^^
James was not personally active —

so far as we know —
in this exposure, but that it was pleasing to him we can infer,
not only from our general knowledge, but from the fact that
Arthur Wilson, in his History of Great Britain, published
in 1653, appends to the story the following observation :
"The King took delight by the line of his Reason to sound

the depth of such brutish Impostors, and he discovered many."
Then, after reporting the case of Haydock, the Sleeping
Preacher, Wilson continues: "Some others, both men and
women, inspired with such Enthusiasms, and fanatick faiicies^
he reduced to their right senses, applying his Remedies suitable
to the Distemper, wherein he made himself often very merry
. but some of their Stories being a little coarse, are not
. .
-^^
fit to be here related."
Tributes to King James's interest in detecting fraudulent

cases are offered not only by Osborne (who speaks of "the
charge he gave the Judges, to be circumspect in condemning
those, committed by ignorant Justices, for Diabolical Com-
pacts "),^^^ but by Bishop Goodman, and by Fuller. Good-
man's testimony is brief, but to the purpose. James, he says,
"was ever apt to search into secrets, to try conclusions [i.e.
experiments], as I did know some who saw him run to see one
in a fit whom they said was bewitched." ^^'* Fuller provides
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2d Series, 18. 140 fF. ; W. M. Hart,

Archaeologia, 40. 397. Examples are countless.
^"
Hutchinson, Historical Essay, 1718, pp. 217 ff. (from the narrative). Cf.
The Second Part of the Boy of Bilson, 1698, pp. 1-9 ; Gee, The Foot out of the
Snare, 1624, pp. 53-54.
'1'
Pp. 111-112. For Wilson's own skepticism on the subject of witchcraft, see
his Autobiography, in Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. 2. Book xii, pp. 26-27.
213
Essay i. (Miscellaneous Works, 11th edition, 1722, p. 29). Cf. p. 48, above.
2" Court of
King James the First, ed. Brewer, 1839, 1. 3.
62 ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT AND JAJMES THE FIRST
an elaborate testimonium.^^''' After telling of the Boy of

Bilson, he continues as follows :
"Indeed, all this king's reign was scattered over with

cheaters of this kind. Some papists, some sectaries, some
neither, as who dissembled such possession, either out of mal-
ice to be revenged on those whom they accused of witchcraft,
or covetous to enrich themselves."
Then, after giving several examples, which he calls "a
few out of many," -^^ he concludes thus :
—
"King James was no less dexterous than desirous
. . .
to make discovery of these deceits. Various were his ways in

detecting them, aweing some into confession with his pres-
ence, others by promise of pardon and fair usage. He or-
dered it so, that a proper courtier made love to one of these
bewitched maids, and quickly Cupid's arrows drave out the
pretended darts of the devil. Another there was, the tides
of whose possession did so ebb and flow, that punctually they
observed one hour till the king came to visit her. The maid,
loath to be so unmannerly as to make his majesty attend
her time, antedated her fits many hours, and instantly ran
through the whole zodiac of tricks which she used to play.
A third, strangely affected when the first verse of St. John's
Gospel was read unto her in our translation, was tame and
quiet whilst the same was pronounced in Greek, her English
devil belike understanding no other language. The fre-
quency of such forged possessions wrought such an altera-
tion upon the judgment of King James, that he, receding
from what he had written in his Demonology, grew first
diffident of, and then flatly to deny the workings of
witches and devils as but falsehoods and delusions." -'^ It
seems probable that Fuller goes too far in this last statement,
-^^
though Osborne says something to the same effect. It is
not likely that King James ever gave up his theoretical belief
in witchcraft.-^^ It is clear, however, that, in his later years,
-15
Church History. Book x., cent, xvii., §§ 54-57 (ed. Brewer, 6. 448-452). Cf.
Gifford's Jonson, 7. 140, note 4.
-'^
§ 56. The only case that we can date is Haydock's (see p. 55, above).
'"
§ 57 (5. 4.51-452).
-'*
Essay i. (see p. 48, above).
2'^
The Disemonologie (unmodified) was included in the authorized edition of the
king's Works in 161C.
he came close to the opinion pronounced, in 1711, by Addi-

son in a famous passage (echoed by Blackstone) "I be- :
Heve in general that there is, and has been such a thing as
witchcraft but at the same time can give no credit to any
;
^^^
particular instance of it." But we must return to King
James's good influence on the judges.
This influence comes out very clearly in the Fairfax case,
six years after James's rebuke to Justice Winch and Serjeant
Crew.^^^ In IGS'S, Edward Fairfax, the translator of Tasso,
brought six women before the York assizes on the charge of
bewitching his two daughters. The fits had lasted for sev-
eral months and were similar to those of the Throckmorton
girls the Warboys narrative was still doing its work. At
:
the same assizes, one of Fairfax's neighbors, a gentleman

named John Jeffray, accused the same defendants of be-
witching his daughter Maud. The grand
jury was ex-
ceptionally intelligent, including six justices ofthe peace.
It had already "received a good caveat by a message from the
^^^
judge to be very careful in the matter of witches." Yet
it found a true bill, and the trial began.
The six women were arraigned on August 9, 1622.^^'

Mark the course of proceedings. All three of the afflicted
girls fell into a trance in the presence of the court and were
carried out insensible. Sir George Ellis and some other
justices, leaving the bench, followed, and exerted themselves
to discover the imposture that they suspected. They soon
returned, declaring that the Jeffray girl had confessed that
she had acted throughout by the direction of her parents.
Maud Jeffray denied that she had made the alleged admis-
sions but her father was sent to jail forthwith, and his
;
charge was dismissed.--^ The Fairfax girls, however, had

not been found to be counterfeiting, and the trial of that case
went on. But the court was determined to avoid the mis-
take made at Leicester in 1616. The presiding justice, after
^^
Spectator for July 14, 1711 (No. 117); cf. Blackstone, Commentaries, Book
iv., chap. 4, sect. G (4th edition, 1770, 4. GO-61).
^^^
Full details of this case are given in Fairfax's own narrative, entitled Dsemono-
logia (edited by William Grainge, Harrogate, 1882).
^^ Fairfax
says this message was delivered to the grand jury in his hearing (p.
126).
^' ^^
Fairfax, p. 126. Pp. 123-127.
some witnesses had been heard, instructed the jury that the
evidence "reached not to the point of the statute," stopped
the trial, and discharged the defendants. ^-^ Thereafter it
was "given out," as Fairfax tells us, that "Jeffray and his
family devised the practice, to which they drew my eldest
daughter, and she the younger." Fairfax himself was
exonerated.^^®
Here we see the influence of the king's precept and ex-
ample at every turn. The grand jury was warned to be
careful, the judges were eager to discover an imposture, and,
thinking they had done so, yet not daring to trust the jury
to acquit, they found that the facts alleged did not bring the
case under the statute and took it away from the jury.
—
And finally as if to leave to posterity no doubt whatever
of the first source of all this caution and circumspection —
Fairfax mentions King James in the most unequivocal way.
His narrative is, in effect, an appeal from the judges to
public opinion. His daughters, he maintains, are certainly
no tricksters they are in an altogether different category
;
"
from those whose impostures our wise king so lately laid
^^'
open.
Nor did the good effects of King James's skeptical temper
and he taught the judges cease with his death.
of the lesson
I can find but one execution for witchcraft in the first seven
years of Charles I. Then occurred the famous case of the
Lancashire Witches of 1633. On this occasion seventeen
persons were convicted, but the judge did not believe in
their guilt, and brought the matter to the king's attention.
A careful investigation ensued, and none of the alleged
witches suffered death. Hitherto this case has been regarded
as marking a contrast between Charles's creed and practice
and the acts and belief of his father, Mr. Crossley, who is
so severe on King James, praises King Charles warmly for
thus "distinguishing himself ... in days when philosophy
stumbled and murder arrayed itself in the robes of justice
— by an enlightened exercise of the kingly prerogative of
2^^
mercy." Wright remarks that "Charles I. had not the
same weak prejudices in these matters as his father." ^^^ It
226
P. 127. 228
p. 124 227
p gl. 2M Edition of Potts'a Discoverie, p. Ixxvii.
223
Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, 2. 1 17.
is well to approve King Charles, whose personal record on

this matter of witchcraft is laudable, but it must now be
quite clear that he was merely following his father's praise-
worthy example.
Our scrutiny of King James's record is finished. No sum-

ming up is necessary. The defendant is acquitted by the
facts. One final remark, however, may be made, in lieu of
a peroration. Diligent search has so far brought to light
less than forty executions for witchcraft throughout England
in the reign of James I., or an average of about two a year.
Contrast with this statement the fact that in ten years
of the same reign (6-15 James I.) at least thirty-two persons
were pressed to death in the single County of Middlesex
for refusing to plead in cases of felony (not witchcraft) or an ,
average of over three a year, and that, in the same county

for the same period, at least seven hundred persons were
hanged for felonies other than witchcraft, or an average of
seventy a yearP^ These figures call for no commentary.
We may double or treble the number of witch-hangings, if
we will, in order to allow for incompleteness in the published
records, and it still remains true that the reign of James I.
was not, in this regard, a dark and bloody period.
2'"
Jeafifreson, Middlesex County Records, 2. xvii.-xviii., liii.
Cambridge,
April 1, 1911.
BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS: THE
MYTHOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
J. EsTLiN Carpenter
Manchester New College
"The comparative history of rehgion," says Dr. Windisch,

"is not a history of borrowings." ^ No doubt each great his-
toric faith develops its own genius, under the inspiration of
the personalities, known or unknown, who have imparted
to it the powerful stimulus of their own life and thought.
No doubt also the foundation of many of the widespread
myths to be encountered in different parts of the globe —
the waste and darkness of primeval waters —
the world-egg
— the wedded union of sky and earth —
is to be sought in
elements of experience that are common to all. The inter-

pretation of the world around finds everywhere similar
events to be explained the same sun rises and sets
; the ;
same moon passes through the same phases the same senses;
observe them the same thinking power combines similar

;
recollections into its theories of the universe and its begin-

nings and human life, when it has advanced beyond its
;
crudest forms, is organized in similar relations, and is exposed

to the same vicissitudes.
But on the other hand, every vigorous stock grows by con-
tact and suggestion from without. The vitality of any re-
proved by its power to assimilate fresh ma-
ligion is chiefly
terials, and reshape them by its own plastic force. The
dictum of Windisch may be easily reversed. Israel would
have been poorly furnished with speculations about primeval
antiquity had it not borrowed the conceptions of Babylonian
science. But for the Avestan theodicy its hopes for the
^
Buddha's Geburt und die Lehre von der Seelenwanderung, p. 200, Leipzig,
1908.
67
68 BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN PARALLELS
future would have taken a very different form. And had

not early Christianity been willing to receive a loan of the
highest significance from Hellenic culture, the destiny of
Europe and the world would have run in paths beyond our
power to imagine. No a priori maxims can govern historical
investigation. There is always a case for inquiry and if ;
any one can prove that the Gospels owe anything to the
stories either of Gilgamesh or of the Buddha, he will deserve
respectful attention. Doubtless there will be differences of
opinion as to what constitutes proof and the number of ;
coincidences that will be admitted to establish even a proba-

bility of relationship will vary from mind to mind. Pre-
possessions and prejudices are not the peculiar property of
Christian apologists.
The really interesting parallels between Buddhism and
Christianity lie in the great development which transformed
the primitive teaching of Gotama from a system of ethical
culture, associated with an empirical idealism, into a trans-
cendental philosophy capable of sustaining a lofty religion
of spiritual communion, expressing itself in highly organized
worship. The attention of western students, however, has
hitherto been chiefly attracted by the remarkable resem-
blances between incidents in the careers of the two teachers,
some of their moral precepts, and the legends which gathered
around their persons. Founding his argument partly on the
Lucan story of the Nativity, a distinguished English critic
a generation ago felt himself justified in talking of the
"obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism." The
devoted patience and the learned labor of Mr. Albert J.
Edmiuids have brought together a large number of passages
for comparison,^ the value ofwhich will naturally be very
variously estimated. I do not propose in this paper to
discuss either his method or his conclusions. Without
attempting to deal with the wide range covered by his
inquiry, I wish to suggest the possibility of another line of
explanation of the likenesses in the stories of the birth.
May it not be the case that there was a common mythological
background which supplied a typical form for national or
^
Buddhist and Christian Gospels, 2 vols., 4th ed., Philadelphia, 1908.
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER 69
local imagination to cast into its own mould and adorn with
its own colouring ? The answer
to such a question depends
on two groups of considerations. In the first place, are
there any indications of the diffusion of other beliefs or ideas
between India and the Mediterranean lands which would
justify us in supposing the existence of such a treasury of
mythic representations ? And secondly, is there any evi-
dence that might have contained a description of what was
it
proper to happen when a hero, a prophet, or a god was to be

born ? Only a few hints and illustrations pointing in this
direction can be offered here.
The possibility of the transmission of stories between India

and Western Asia has long been recognized. Every one
knows the tale of the two women who were brought before
Solomon, claiming the same child. ^ The wise judge ordered
the child to be divided and half to be given to each disputant.
The real mother, rather than see her babe slain, surrendered
her half to preserve its life. In the Commentary on the
Maha-Ummagga Jataka in the book of the Buddha's pre-
vious births^ there is a corresponding story, where the change
of scene and fresh local color cannot disguise the similarity.
The child of a woman bathing in a tank is carried off by an
ogress in human form. The mother runs after her to re-
cover it, but the ogress denies her right, and declares that the
babe is her own. Quarrelling loudly, they pass the door of
the hall where the future Buddha sits in judgment. He hears
their cries and summons them before him. When their
pleas are stated, he bids an attendant draw a line upon the
ground. The child is laid across it the ogress is directed
;
to lay hold of its arms, the mother to grasp its legs "The :
child shall be hers who drags it over the line." As they begin
to pull, the mother, seeing the child suffer, lets go and weeps.
"Whose hearts are tender to babes," inquires the "Great
Physician," "those who have borne children or those who have
not.?" The bystanders give the appropriate answer, and
' *
I Kings iii. 16-28. Jataka, 6. 336.
the infant is restored to the true mother. The dilemma is

the same the conclusion is reached by a similar test founded
;
on the same motive. The two stories seem to be variants of

a common original. So far as the literary record goes, the
Book of Kings is, of course, far the older. But the tale might
have been repeated for centuries in India without being
written down. Did it come from there along with the apes
and the ivory which Solomon was said to have imported ?
Or was it picked up in Babylonia in the sixth century when
Israel was in exile, and attached to Solomon by the redactor
of the traditions of his wisdom ? No definite answer is
possible, but the acknowledged Indian origin of so many
western folk-tales is in favor of the southern reference.
On the other hand, the story of Sargon with its parallel
in the case of Moses is of undoubtedly higher antiquity than
its Indian counterpart. The text in its present form comes
from the scribes of Assurbanipal in the seventh century
B.C., but it is recognized as a legend of ancient date.
Mylowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth.

She me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she closed my door. She
set
cast me into the river, which rose not over me. The river bore me up,
unto Akki the irrigator it carried me. Akki the irrigator lifted me
. . .
out. Akki the irrigator as his own son reared me, etc.^
A similar taletold at great length and with exuberant

is
imagination the huge Indian epic, the Mahabharata.^

in
The lady Kunti has conceived by Surya, the Sun. When
the child Kama is born, he is placed in a waterproof wicker-
work basket, duly pillowed and sheeted, and the basket is
set on the waters of the river Asva, whence it is borne on its
course to the Ganges. There the beautiful lady Radha, who
has no son, watches it drifting down the stream. The waves
bring it to the bank the babe is discovered and accepted
;
as a gift from the gods and the boy is reared by Radha and
;
her husband in their own home. Once more we encounter

a wandering tale in a new setting, this time doubtless derived
from an ancient Mesopotamian source.
To Babylonia also belongs the still more widespread
^
L. W. King, Chronicles conf'erning Early Babylonian Kings, 2. 88 (1907).
^
Third division, Vana Parva, chapter 307, translated by Dutt.
legend of the Flood. When the cuneiform story was dis-

covered by one of the pioneers of Assyriological research,
Mr. George Smith, it was already known that a similar nar-
rative, afterwards incorporated in the myths of Vishnu,
existed in the Brahman a of a Hundred Paths/ Manu, the
mythical progenitor of humanity, is warned by a fish of a
coming flood. He is directed to build a ship and enter it,
and the fish then promises to save him. When the deluge
rises, the fish swims up to him the ship's rope is tied to its
;
horn and Manu is towed in safety to the Northern Moun-

;
tain. There he remains while the waters sweep away the

previous race, and thence, when the waters subside, he
descends to become, like Noah, the sire of mankind. The
appearance of this story in the Brahmanical literature which
preceded the rise of Buddhism at once raises unanswerable
questions. Was it part of the original stock of beliefs which
the immigrant Aryans brought with them and in due time
adapted to their new home, or was it a later acquisition which
was incorporated into the legendary lore fed from all sources
after their settlement ? Such tales unquestionably travel
far. They may be traced through Syria and Asia Minor
into Greece,^ where Ogyges, Deucalion, and last of all
Dardanos, figure in turn as the hero. The steps of migra-
tion may be beyond the historian's ken but it can hardly;
be doubted that the Mediterranean stories were ultimately

derived from a common source in Babylonian culture. They
enter Greek literature at a relatively late date, and Pindar
is the oldest surviving witness. Usener makes it probable
that the Deucalion story was known to one of the Hesiodic
poets at the opening of the sixth century b.c.,^ but in the
scheme of the Four Ages the Deluge has no place.
The parallel of the Four Ages of the Greeks with the later
Indian series of Four Yugas has been familiar since Roth's
essay in 1866, though his attempt to carry their source back
to the earliest days of Indo-Germanic antiquity does not
^
Sacred Books of the East, 12. 216, translated by Eggeling. Cf. Mahabharata
iii. 187.
Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im
8
Cf. Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen (1899) ;
Lichte des alten Orients, p. 131 (1904) and Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie,
;
1. 443 (1906).
'
Die Sintfluthsagen, p. 33.
find favor with the present generation of scholars. Similar

speculations seem traceable in different forms in Western
Asia. Ewald pointed to one such at the opening of Israel's
history,^'^ clearer analysis of modern times follows
and the
it through the stages of the Priestly Code, where the marked
decline in the duration of human life is the symbol of the

increasing corruption of the world. The Avestan ar-
rangement of the world's history in four periods of three
thousand years each, terminating in Ahura's triumph,
belongs to a different scheme of thought, founded on the
idea of alternate victories instead of continuous decline,
though the number four may have been suggested from the
same ultimate source. It reappears in Daniel's presentation
of the succession of four world empires (Dan. ii. and vii.),
and passes on into later Apocalyptic." Hindu, Greek, and
Jew learned from a common school in Western Asia.
II
The programmes of world history are closely connected

with those of cosmography and eschatology, and in this field
also India presents parallels of no little interest. The pic-
ture of the universe implied in the Vedic hymns is extremely
simple compared with the later doctrine of the Puranas.
Above the earth rises the atmosphere, reaching to the sky ;
above the sky is the heaven, the home of the gods, the realm
unseen by mortal eyes but full of light. The four points
of the compass are known, and the earth is apparently divided
into four quarters or regions. Its shape, however, is round,
for it is compared to a wheel, and it is expressly called cir-
cular. ^^ Subsequent representations show enormous imag-

inative development. Long before the completion of the
great cyclopaedic poem which enshrines so much of the
mythology, philosophy, and religion of India, or the still
later literature of the Puranas, the Buddhist texts reveal to
us important phases of belief varying widely from Brahman-
i»
History of Israel, 1. 257 (3d ed.).
" Cf. Gunkel's note on Genesis 1-14, in the Handkommentar,
xvii. pp. 241-243.
^ Cf. Macdonell, Vedic
Mythology, p. 9, in Biihler's Grundriss ; Wallis, Cos-
mology of the Rig Veda, pp. 111-117 (1887).
ical tradition. The world of the devas is still, indeed, under

the supreme government of Brahma. But its ranks are
filled with groups of figures unknown to the theology of the
sacred books of antiquity. They rise in seven orders from
the Four Great Kjngs and their multitudinous attendants,
through the Thirty-three who represent the venerable Vedic
forms, up to the sovereign Brahma, "Lord of all, Father of
all that are and are to be."
^^
An extensive folklore lies
behind the lists in two _Suttas of the Dlgha Nikaya, the
Mahasamaya,^^ and the Atanatiya.^^ Part of this immense
hierachyis, very likely, the imaginative creation of Buddhism,
but many of its lower elements belong to the sphere of popu-
lar faith. Such are the various groups of spirits ruled by
the Four Great Klings, the regents of the four quarters of
the earth, enumerated in the Atanatiya Sutta. This poem
opens to us a glimpse into the early Buddhist view of the
earth. On the east and west is the ocean deep, wide-
—
spread
—
and on the north rises the beautiful Meru with the
great northern continent at its base, where the happy
dwellers need not labor for their food, as it grows of its own
accord, and consequently do not claim things as their own,
or grasp at possession. ^^
Round mountain gathered all kinds of pious specu-
this
lations.^^ On its summit was
the heaven of the Thirty-three,
ruled by their King Sakka, the representative of the Vedic
Indra and later Buddhist texts vie with the poet of the
;
Mahabharata in describing its splendors. ^^ Above it rose

tier upon tier of heavenly realms, till the world of Brahma
himself was reached, the seventh and highest order of Deity.
With its various grades for the blessed who still wore some
''
Among many similar enumerations, see that in the Kevaddha Sutta (Dlgha
Nikaya, Sutta xi.), translated by Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. 280.
"
Digha Nikaya. 2. 253.
15
Ibid., 3. 194.
1*
'Amamaapariggaha,' ibid., p. 199.
" It was also known
to the Jains, Sacred Books of the East, 45. 288.
'^
Indian imagination employs the same sort of scenic presentation as the Apoca-
lypse. Indra's city, which has a thousand gates, according to the Mahabharata,
is adorned with precious stones, and there are trees which yield all seasons' fruit.
The sun does not scorch, nor does heat or cold or weariness torment. Grief, weak-
ness, despondency, are unknown; no one is angry or covetous. Cf. Fausboll,
Indian Mythology, p. 87.
outward form, or for those who needed no external vesture

but were simple effulgences nurtured on joy,^^ we are not here
concerned they do not belong to the proper Buddhist
:
cosmography. Whatever elaboration it afterwards ac-

quired, this seems to have been at first relatively simple.
India was placed on the south side of Mount Meru,-° and
the whole earth was said to rest on water, the water on wind,
and the wind on space. ^^ The region of the hells is not de-
fined they would seem to be located beneath the earth,
;
for the wicked Devadatta, like Dathan and Abiram, is

swallowed up by the earth, and presumably finds his way
through it to his place of pain.-^ But the entire complex,
with the earth in the centre and all the ranges for sentient
beings above and below, formed a world-system {loka-
dhdtu), and appears to have been conceived as spherical.
The number of these systems
— for they might be indefi-
nitely multiplied in infinite space was unfixed. — In the
thousand mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya,^^ each has its
central mount, the same four continents and four great
oceans, and the same sevenfold orders of the gods. The
Buddha could, if he desired, address with his own voice each
one of three thousand such world-systems.^^ And the num-
ber swells yet further. When the Kingdom of the Dhamma
is established at Benares, and Kondauiia has obtained the
holy insight, a shout of joy arises from the devas on earth
through the whole hierarchy to the Brahma's realm a shock ;
of sympathy passes through the entire system of ten thousand

worlds, and an immeasurable light fills the whole universe.^^
Later speculation demanded still further elaboration, and
a new term comes into view, the cakkavdla,^^ as the equiva-
lent of the loka-dhdtu of the older texts. Its simple meaning
seems to be merely 'ring' or 'horizon.' ^^ But it acquired
" Brahmajala Sutta, in Dialogues of the Buddha, 1. 31.
'"'
On the east was Pubba-Videha, and on the west, Apara-Goyana ; see An-
guttara Nikaya, 1. 227; 5. 59.
21
Digha Nikaya, 2. 107, Sacred Books, 11. 45 ; Milinda Paflha. p. 68, ibid.,
35. 106.
22
Milinda Paflha, p. 205, Sacred Books, 35. 292. Four other cases of similar
23
punishment are named, ibid., 35. 153. 1 ^27 and 6. 59.
24
1. 128. 25
Anguttara, vinaya Pitaka. in Sacred Books, 13. 98.
*'
For instance, Jataka, 1. 48.
'^
Cf the lexicons and Kern
. in the Lotus of the True Law, Sacred Books, 21. 233.
a highly technical application. In the great ocean flowing

round Meru rose seven concentric circles of rock, between
the monarch of mountains and the four great continents.
Beyond these again, with their encompassing seas, a mighty
^^
range of peaks enclosed the whole, and formed the utmost
limit of the world. ^^ How much of this scheme underlies
the earlier and simpler presentations, it is impossible to
determine. The seven rock-circles are named in the Jina-
lankara, 192. If that poem could really be referred to the
century before Asoka,^** the whole conception would belong
to the period which wîtnessed the redaction of the four great
Nikayas of the Pali canon. But, apart from other consid-
erations, the silence of the Pitakas seems unfavorable to
such a conclusion.
It is not necessary in the present brief study to discuss
the resemblances or divergences of the Brahmanical texts
as compared with those of Buddhism. The statements of
different authors vary widely, and the want of precision in
the employment of particular terms adds greatly to their
confusion. It may suffice that all agree in placing Meru in
the middle of the earth, and in one form or another associate
the number seven, not only with the realms of the gods
(including the world of Brahma) above it, but with seven
spatial divisions, diversely named, which surround it.^^
Neither in the Mahabharata nor in the Puranas, however,
is there any sign of acquaintance with the technical termi-
nology of the concentric rock-walls. On the other hand,

Buddhist writers are silent on the descent of the heavenly
Ganges, from the foot of Vishnu, upon Mount Meru, whence,
after flowing round the city of Brahma, it parted into four
mighty rivers to water the four great continents of the earth .^^
The antecedents of this world-picture are not hard to
find. Ever since Jensen described the Babylonian cosmol-
ogy/^ the belief has grow^n stronger and stronger that Meru
2* -^
CakJcavdla-pabbata. Cf. Burnouf, Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 842.
'°
So Gray, in his edition of the text, p. 7.
^1
Dr. William F. Warren, The Earliest Cosmologies, p. 87, supplies an inter-
pretation derived from Hindu sources in the last century.
^-
Vishnu Parana, ed. Hall, 2. 119 f. Other authorities mention seven streams.
On Genesis ii. 10-14, see Gunkel, Handkommentar,
pp. 7, 33.
^^
Kosmologie der Babylonier, p. 184.
isno other than the great mountain of the gods which re-
appears also in the Iranian scriptures, was within the view
even of Hebrew seers/^ and had its counterpart in the Greek
Olympus. The frequent recurrence of the number seven is
explained from the same source. The sevenfold order of
the gods, with their domains above the earth, is parallel
though not identical with the sevenfold arrangement of the
Babylonian heavens, founded on the sun, moon, and five
planets.^^ And the seven rock-circles round Meru show
the sacred number sounding on, as in the seven walls encom-
passing the city of the Mesopotamian underworld, or the
seven walls encircling Ecbatana,^^ till it dies away in the seven
ramparts and seven rows of palms which girdled KusavatI,
the city of the Great King of Glory ,^^ or the seven terraces
of Sukhavati, the land of bliss.^^ The significant question
cannot but present itself. When was this influence exercised,
and by what means ?
No definite answer, of course, can be given. Probabilities

only are within our reach. One view assumes a common
Indo-Iranian origin ^^ another, observing that the Iranian
;
months bear Babylonian names, prefers to explain the coin-

cidences between the two branches of Aryan mythology by
independent derivation of similar suggestions from a common
source.^" That Babylonian stories found their way to India
before the rise of Buddhism is proved by the appearance of
the flood tale in the Brahman a of a Hundred Paths (already
mentioned) which has no fellow in the Avestan texts. The
,
cosmography of which Meru is the centre is quite unknown

"
to the Vedic age. There are, indeed, four quarters," corre-
sponding to the four points of the compass, increased to six
in the Atharva-veda,^^ which appear as well known objects
^ Isaiah xiv. 13 is well known. Cf. Psalm xlviii. 3; Ezekiel xxviii. 14. Schra-
der-Zimmern (Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3d ed., p. 620) find further
traces in Isaiah ii. 2; Micah iv. 1 ; Zechariah xiv. 10 Revelation xxi. 10.
;
'^
Oldenberg's suggestion (Die Religion des Veda, 1894, p. 195) that the seven
Adityas of Vedic mythology are due to Semitic influence, has not won much sup-
38
Herodotus, i. 98. " Sacred Books, 11. 249 f.
port.
'^
Sacred Books 49 (part ii). 91. Cf. the seven-walled chamber in which King
Kimbisara was imprisoned at Raja-griha, ibid., p. 161. For Jensen's comparison
of the seven keshvars in the Buudehesh and the seven dvlpas of Indian mythology,
see his Kosmologie, pp. 176 ff.
^^
So Dr. Warren in The Earliest Cosmologies.
*o
Cf. Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 183 f. ^ Cf. Macdonell, Vedic
Mythology, p. 9.
of worship in the Siiigalovada Sutta.'*^ They match the four

kibrdti of the Semitic Babylonians,^^ and have their analogues
in the Old Testament. ^^ But the Vedic universe is extremely
"
simple. It consists of three worlds," the earth, the atmos-
phere, and the heaven of light above the sky. Beneath is a
hole or pit, and the wicked are thrust down into the abyss ;
in the Atharva-veda there is a "house below," a place of
darkness and torment. These scanty allusions are quite in-
consistent with the possession of an elaborate cosmic scheme
of heavens and hells. The number seven is, of course, of
repeated occurrence in many connections, and Bergaigne con-
jectured a reference to seven worlds in Rig-veda viii. 61. 16.^^
But these are unknown to the treatises in which the Vedic
ritual was embodied. The Brahman a of a Hundred Paths
still has only three worlds to deal with,"*^ and the same three
still constitute the cosmos of the early Upanishads.^^ In

those pathetic sketches of the progress of the soul by differ-
ent routes to the world of light and the everlasting home of
Brahman, or to the moon and back through ether, air, and
rain, to the earth,^^ imagination is still occupied with the
scenery of our common life. Even that pilgrimage which
leads through the worlds of fire and air, of Varuna and Indra,
Prajapati and Brahman, knows no sevenfold heaven. The
River Ageless and the Palace Unconquerable and the Throne
Intelligence have nothing to do with the summit of Meru
or the yet higher worlds above. Had this pictorial presenta-
tion been brought by the Aryan immigrants as part of their
ancestral inheritance of thought, it could not have remained
concealed for so many ages, while it becomes so prominent
in later times. The part which it plays in Indian literature
^ ^ Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 173 f.
Digha Nikaya, 3. 180.
^ Isaiah xi. 12; Jeremiah xUx. 36; Ezekiel vii. 2; Revelation vii. 1, xx. 8. See
Cheyne in EncycIoptBdia Biblica, 2, col. llliO.
^5
La Religion Vedique, 2. 140. Others interpret quite differently. Dr. Warren
sees other indications in the seven castles demolished by Indra, Rig-veda, vii.
18. 13, etc., and in the seven bottoms or foundations of the (atmospheric) ocean,
viii. 40. 5.
^^
So Sacred Books, 43. 314. But the worid of the gods has become sevenfold,
cf. The Atharva-veda begins to multiply the series; three earths and
p. 277.
heavens, Atharva-veda iv. 20. 2 nine earths, oceans, heavens, xi. 7. 14.
;
*'
Cf. Sacred Books, 1. 31, 70, etc.
*8
Collected in Max Muller's Theosophy or Psychological Religion, pp. 114 ff.
from the fifth century onwards makes its silent retention

for a previous millennium quite inexplicable.
Ill
These considerations may be reinforced from another

side. The same sources which first portray for us the stately
"
form of the monarch of mountains," tell us also that even
he will perish. The Buddhist texts are never weary of
^'-^
the central theme of 'impermanence.' Whatever is com-

posite must be dissolved, and the universe itself was no ex-
ception. Over the solid earth and all its contents was written
the doom of destruction. The conception which has slowly
been applied to human destiny, death, rebirth, redeath, and
rebirth again under the law of the Deed (karma), was trans-
ferred to the physical world. The visible scene provided
the on which the principle of Karma was worked out;
field
and the same consequence of origination and decay attached
to it. The terminology of this process is already fully de-
veloped in the Buddhist texts. Time is reckoned by vast
periods in which the world unrolls itself out of darkness and
chaos, runs through its appointed cycle of development and
decline, and comes in due course to its destined end.^° The
evolution of our existing scene after such an interval of
silence, gloom, and waste, is described in the Agganna Sutta,^^
which further sketches the origin of the human race, the be-
ginning of evil conduct, and the rise of social distinctions.
These periods correspond in the later theology to the slum-
ber and the waking of Brahma,^- and the world-destruction
isaccomplished by fire or water. The great conflagration
^^
or the mighty deluge serves to point an image for the Bud-

dhist poets also.^^ But the belief was much more than a
decorative device. It plays a significant part in Indian
eschatology, and enters literature with full detail in the
*^
Samyutta, 3. 149: 'the ocean, Sineru, king of mountains, and the earth will
*°
one day perish and cease to be." Cf. Sacred Books, 11. 216.
51 ^2
Digha Nikaya, 3. 84. Qi. Manu, Sacred Books, 25. 17.
" A third agency, wind, was afterwards added.
^ Buddha-Carita, xiii. 41, in Sacred Books, 49. 143; Lotus, ibid.. 21. 241; Life
of Buddha from the Chinese, ibid., 19. 309.
Buddhist Pitakas. The process is described in a discourse

attributed to the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya.^^ Cu-
riously enough, it occupies a place in his career not unlike
the eschatological prophecy of Mark xiii. in that of Jesus.

His life is nearing its end he is sojourning in the grove
;
presented to the Order by the courtesan Ambapali in the last

^^
year of his long ministry and he must impress on his
;
disciples the fundamental truth that all things which have

come together must pass away. Even Sineru with its vast
mass, eighty-four thousand leagues beneath the ocean and
eighty-four thousand more in height above it, must cease
to be. A time will come when it will rain no more, and plants,
herbs, and trees will wither away. A second sun will ap-
pear, and brooks and ponds will dry up. With a third sun,
the great rivers like the Ganges and the Jumna will fail.
At the advent of the fourth, the mythologic lakes which
were their sources will be exhausted. The fifth will reduce
the waters of the great ocean to the depth of a finger-joint.
The sixth will make the earth and Meru belch forth clouds
of smoke and with the seventh all the tiers of heavens up
;
to the Brahma world will be ablaze, and the whole universe

^^
will be consumed. In the vast mass of literature piled on
the Veda there is nothing like this.^^ Whence came the con-
ception of a great world-confiagration ? Destruction by
water was already borrowed from Babylonia, though it was
not conceived on the same cosmic scale, or connected with
a doctrine of world-ages. Are we to look beyond the Hi-
malaya for its counterpart by fire ?
No such doctrine has yet been discovered in any cunei-
form text. But indications are not wanting, nevertheless,
that it had a home in Western Asia. The New Testament
presents us with a division of time into great world-periods,
55
Anguttara Nikaya, 4. 100. Translated by Edmunds, Buddhist and Christian
ê
Gospels, 2. 147 (4th ed.). Sacred Books, 11. 33.
5^
Cf. Henry C. Warren's version from the later text of the 'Path of Purity,'
in Buddhism in Translations, pp. S^l ff., where the catastrophe involves a million
million worlds. For another development, including fire and flood and wind, see
the Nirvana Sutra in Beal's Catena, p. 170.
5^
In the Atharva-veda, x. 10. 39, ".\s between heaven-and-earth Agni went,
burning on, all consuming" (Whitney-Lanman), Keith finds an allusion to this
doctrine of the periodic destruction and renewal of the world. Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, 1909, p. 599.
the age that now is, and the age that is to come and specu- ;
lation concerned itself largely with the events which would

mark the transition. One great catastrophe had already-
taken place in the distant past, the Deluge. What would
prepare the way for the next era ? The author of 2 Peter,
following a succession of apocalyptists, answered 'Fire.'^'
It was an expectation already stamped with the sanction of
the past. The historian Josephus ascribes the invention
of astronomy to the children of Seth, and relates a curious
story of the measures taken to preserve their discovery.^"
When Adam predicted that the world would be destroyed at
one time by the force of fire, and at another by the violence
of water, they made two pillars, one of brick and one of stone,
on both of which they inscribed the knowledge they had won.
If the brick pillar were destroyed by the flood, the stone
pillar might still preserve the record; "and it remains,"
adds Josephus, boldly, "in the land of Siris to this day.'*
The attribution of this prophecy to the wisdom of the first
man implies that it was derived from remote antiquity.
There is at any rate good reason to think that it may have
belonged to the ancient Babylonian cosmology. In the
Naturales Qusestiones of Seneca (iii. 29), the Roman philos-
opher reports some of the opinions of Berosus, the famous
priest of Bel in Babylon, whose statue was erected by the
Athenians, says Pliny, with a gilt tongue in honor of his
extraordinary predictions. Born in the reign of Alexander
the Great, he composed his three books of Babylonica under
Antiochus II., who came to the throne in 261 B.C. Manv of
the statements of Berosus have been justified by recent in-
vestigators; and his use of cuneiform materials is fully
admitted. Now Berosus, says Seneca, taught on astronom-
ical grounds a doctrine of a great world-year, which would
end in one case with a flood (diluvium), and in the other with
a fire (conflagratio) It has been held that this conception
.
was founded on the observation of the precession of the equi-

noxes, which is erroneously asserted to have been known to
the Babylonian astronomers. In the world's great year, the
deluge would mark the winter and the fire the summer.
" iii. 5-7, 10.

«»
Antiquities, i. 2, 3.
There are traces of a Babylonian cycle of 36,000 years ^^ ;
and there is a high probability that the doctrine reported

by Berosus belonged to a scheme already millenniums old.
In the book of Genesis the Deluge closes the epoch of
primeval man. The destruction of the whole race save
Noah and his family plainly implies the closing of one age
and the opening of a successor. The flood, it is divinely
promised, shall not be repeated. But in Hebrew prophecy,
as Gressmann has so brilliantly shown, ^^ a new element
appears
—a great world-conflagration.^^ The word of
Yahweh to Micah opens with a summons to the peoples, a
challenge to the whole earth. Yahweh is about to come
forth to the vast assize where he is both witness and judge.
From the heavenly sanctuary he will descend to tread on
the high places of the earth. Fire follows in his steps ;
the mountains shall be molten under him,^^ and the valleys

shall be cleft like wax. Jeremiah saw the world relapsing
into primeval chaos, tohu-vd-bohu, iv. 23 one era was ending,
;
another would begin. Zephaniah announced the "day of

wrath" when all the earth should be consumed with the fire
of the divine jealousy. In the exilian and subsequent litera-
ture the expectation blazes more fiercely still. Not the earth
alone, but heaven itself and the deeps of Sheol will feel the
flame. The world comes to an end by fire, and a new heaven
and a new earth are needed. The doctrine of world-periods is
not yet defined it is left for apocalyptists to work out details.
;
Yet further west, along the coasts of Asia Minor, does this
expectation travel. No Greek teacher employed it as an
avenging weapon of divine government, after the manner of
a Hebrew seer, but it was early lodged in Hellenic thought.
The Ionic philosophers were largely concerned with physical
inquiries they brooded over problems of the periodic
;
destruction and reconstitution of the world. Heraclitus of

Ephesus and Hippasus of Metapontum were credited with
^^
Schrader-Zimmern, Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 333 (3d ed.) ;
Hilprecht in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1908, p. 708.

^^
Der Ursprung der Israelitisch-Judischen Eschatologie (1905).
^ It is worth
observing that in Isaiah xxx. 26 (secondary, see Duhm in he.)
the expander, or his glosser, does not realize that a sun seven times as bright might
also be seven times as hot.
" A
special feature of the Iranian eschatology, Sacred Books, 5. 125.
teaching the dissolution of all things by fire at a fixed time

under a necessary law ^^ and Heraclitus is said to have
;
recognised a great world-year, of either 10,800 or 18,000 solar

years in length. Whether he actually used the later term
iK7rvpcoat<; cannot be definitely proved. But Zeller regards
the idea of the world-conflagration as firmly lodged, from
the sixth century onwards, in the philosophical eschatology
of Greece. ^^ Was this also, like the Deluge stories, drawn
from the abundant reservoir of Babylonian speculation ?
The existence of some common elements of eschatological
belief between India and the West finds further illustration
in the pictures of social disorder which would indicate the
near approach of the end. There are, of course, widely
marked differences both of general conception and particular
detail. But beneath these variations there are also singu-
larresemblances, which suggest the influence of similar ideas
and the operation of cognate though not identical motives.
When Jesus says in the Gospels, "I came to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
"
and a man's foes shall be they of his own household (Mat-
thew X. 35), his language obviously recalls that of Micah
vii. 6, "the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter
riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law a man's enemies are the men of his own
;
house." But the language of Micah, in its turn, is parallel

with that in which Babylonian texts appear to dwell on in-
crease of social disorder as signs of impending change.
"Then shall brother devour brother, people shall sell their
children for gold, the lands shall fall into general confusion,
the husband shall leave the wife, and the wife the husband,
the mother shall bar the doors against the daughter." And
again
—
"Brother shall devour brother, the son the father
^^
like the mother the daughter, the bride the
. . . ." . .
In the myth of Atarhasis, the age which closes with a judg-
"5
Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 1. 58, 71 (1906).
Diels,
^^
Pre-Socratic Philosophy. 2. 73-77. Burnet, on the other hand. Early Greek
Philosophy, p. 178 (2d ed., 1908), argues that it contradicts the central idea of the
Heraclitan system.
^'
Jeremias, Babylonisches im Neuen Testamente, p. 97 (1905).
ment in the shape of the deluge and is followed by the new
world-epoch, is preceded by evil years, in which men show

enmity to each other, "the mother opens not the door to her
daughter, one house devours another," etc. Micah repro-
duced commonplaces of family disorganization as the pre-
cursors of an approaching cosmic event and Gressmann :
directed his argument to show that such parallels implied

the existence of a body of eschatological doctrine in Baby-
lonia of high antiquity, connected in one set of texts, at any
rate, with a theory of the destruction of the world, the
particular agency in this case being the Flood.
The story of the Deluge incorporated in the Brahmana
of a Hundred Paths contains no such description of prior
moral disorders. Nor does the Buddha foretell any social
or cosmic catastrophes before the appearance of the seven
suns. The general cyclic conception of growth and decay
was naturally applied to his own institutions. In a dis-
course on the 'Five Dangers of the Future,' recommended
for study in the Bhabra Edict of the Emperor Asoka, he
anticipates the deterioration of character which will beset
the membersof the Order, their loss of self-control, the
growth of luxury and appetite, the evils engendered by
rival claims to distinction, the increase of comfort, and the
demand for fine robes. The danger of such decline is em-
phasized in highly mythological form in the Cakkavatti
Sutta,^^ which relates the decline of human life from a
duration of 84,000 years to ten, through the increase of every
kind of sin, and its gradual recovery by the return to well-
doing till it reaches its former maximum of length, when
Metteyya, the beautiful impersonation of Buddhist charity,
the Buddha-to-be, will inaugurate a fresh period of truth
and righteousness. More significant, however, is the picture
in the Mahabharata of the distresses which will mark the
decrepitude of the last of the Four Ages as the appointed life-
time of the world runs out.®^ The course of the world will
68
Digha Nikaya, 3. 68.
*^ Twoseparate descriptions occur in the Vana Parva, chapters 188 and 190. It
is impossible here to discuss their relations, or to dwell on the significance of Kalkl,
the restorer of order and peace, the righteous king, and maker of a new age, chap-
ters 190-191.
be subverted and the signs of the universal dissohition will

draw nigh. With the increase of every kind of moral dis-
organization, life will grow shorter and strength will decline.

Barbarian kings will rule over the earth and govern their
subjects on false principles. Brahmans will abandon their
religious duties, and sacrifice and prayer will be neglected.
Ignorance, drunkenness, and deceit will infest the earth.
The rains will be withheld no seed will sprout famine will
; ;
breed starvation, and hunger will dissolve the closest ties.

The different "quarters" will break out in flame; the stars
and constellations will lose their brightness the courses of ;
the wind will be confused innumerable meteors will flash

;
through the sky and from his rising to his setting the sun
;
^°
will be eclipsed. Here are the familiar features of the
apocalyptic expectations of Western Asia, applied to new
scenes and adapted to a different social and religious en-
vironment. But the essential ideas are identical. How is
this identity to be explained except by the stimulus of a
common thought ?
^^
IV
By what channels such imaginative suggestions passed

from land to land it is now of course impossible to deter-
mine. But a number of indications converge upon the gen-
eral conclusion that commercial intercourse had a wider
range than was formerly supposed, and carried with it more
possibilities of intellectual exchange than we associate with
the trading vessels or merchant enterprises of the present
day. India was by no means a closed or inaccessible coun-
try. Palaeography derives the earliest Indian alphabet
"">
Vana Parva, chapter 190, verses 76-79.
'^
Another curious
parallel has recently been discovered in a book of Egyptian
prophecies, attributed to Apoui, a prophet of the twelfth dynasty. Here, too, is a
scheme of social dissolution, religious neglect, famine, epidemics, invasion and
massacre, the rivers turned to blood, etc. The period of degeneration does not
appear to be connected with a programme of world-ages, and no cosmic portents
herald the collapse of the universe. A triumphant prosperity will be restored on
the advent of an ideal sovereign, who is "the shepherd of all men, who has no evil
in his heart, and when his flock goes astray, spends the day in seeking it." Maspero,
New Light on Ancient Egypt, translated by Miss Lee, p. 231 (1908).
from Semitic sources about 800 b.c.,^^ whether by the passes

of the Hindu Kush, or more probably by sea. The reports
of Solomon's trade have been already mentioned. The
Hebrew word qojph, 'ape,' is an Indian name (Sanskrit
kajpi, Egyptian gof'e and gij,
Greek KrjPo<i and /c^tto?) ;
'•'^
while the peacock, tukki, seems to correspond with the Mala-

bar toghai. One of the Buddhist Jatakas actually tells a
story of a peacock sent by ship to the kingdom of Baveru
(Babel, Babylon).
^^
The peacock, too, was known in Greece,
where Aristophanes contrasted it, under the name racl)?
(or rao}^ as the Athenians are said to have tried to pro-
nounce it), with the common fowl. An Indian elephant is
figured on an obelisk of Shalmanassar in the ninth century.
Nebuchadrezzar employed Indian cedar in his palace at Birs
Nimrud.^^ Hilprecht found indications of Indian settle-
ments in Babylonia under Artaxerxes I. in the fifth century."^
Rice, which the Greeks spoke of as Indians' food, was known
as early as Sophocles {6pivBr]<;dpTo<;, bread made of opvâ),'^'^
and its name opvâ is identified with the Tamil arisi. Nor
were these the only products transmitted from the East to
the West. Plato seems acquainted with the fable of the ass
^^
in the lion's skin and in the Alcibiades I. 123 there is an
;
allusion to the ^sopic fable of the fox and the lion

"
the —
prints of the feet of those going in are distinct enough." In
discussing the similar story of the jackal and the lion in the
'^
great Indian collection of the Pancatantra, Benfey argued
that the Hindus derived the tale from the Greeks after
Alexander's conquest. But the essential element is now
'2
Biihler, Indische Palseographie, p. 17 (1898). On the questions raised by
Winckler's discoveries at Boghaz Koi in the summer of 1907, see papers by
Professors Jacobi and Oldenberg, Messrs. Berriedale Keith and Kennedy, in the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909.
'*
Gesenius-Brown, Hebrew and English Lexicon.
''*
Jataka, 3. 339.
'
'^
A preserved in the British Museum. See Kennedy, Early Commerce
piece is
of Babylon with India,' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898, p. 266.
^^
Dr. Langdon kindly informs me that as the Hindus in question bore Semitic
names, they had probably been there for at least three generations.
" Liddell and Scott, s.v. See also Kennedy, op. cit., p. 268. Indians followed
Xerxes into Europe, Herodotus vii, 65, 86, and remained with Mardonios in
Hellas, viii. 113, ix. 31 ; 38, 98-117, iv. 44

cf. iii. (Macau's Herodotus).
^8
Cratylus, 411 ; Jataka, 2. 189.
" Pantschatantra, 1. 381.
found in the Buddhist Jatakas, No. 6,^" though in a wholly

different setting, and the story is believed to be of Indian
origin. Questions of profound interest arise in connexion
with other resemblances between Indian and early Greek
thought besides the doctrine of the world-conflagration.
A century ago Colebrooke called attention to resemblances
between phases of early Indian thought and the speculations
of the Eleatic school. Garbe and Hopkins have both recog-
nized Indian influence in Greece. The recent investigations
of Keith have greatly weakened, if they have not entirely
discredited, von Schroeder's plea for the partial dependence
^^
of Pythagoras on teachings from the East but he expressly
;
reserves his judgment in the case of the complex elements

gathered under the name of Orphism. Ever since the dis-
covery of the gold plate at Petelia in Lower Italy, with its
reference to "escape from the sorrowful weary wheel," ^^
there has been a growing belief that Orphism cannot be wholly
explained from Mediterranean sources and among foreign
;
possibilities the natural home of such a view of life is India.
Theconsiderations thus briefly adduced suggest (1) that

Babylonian influences reached India as well as Syria and
Greece and that the Hindu, the Hebrew, and the Hellene all
;
profited by a common wisdom. But (2) they further point

to a more direct if scanty communication with Greek spheres
alike of trade and thought. Was that transmission all con-
fined to one side ? The which vaguely sup-
late traditions
posed Thales, Empedocles, or Anaxagoras to have travelled
in the East, and definitely sent Democritus and Pythagoras
80
Buddhist Birth Stories, translated by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1. 182 (1880).
Dr. Macan (Master of University College, O.\ford) kindly calls my attention to
the parallel between the story of the Dancing Peacock (Nacca-Jataka, translated by
Chalmers, The Jfitaka, ed. Cowell, i. 83, 1895), and the Herodotean tale of the mis-
conduct of Hippokleides (Hdt. vi. 126-30. See Macan's Herodotus, ii. 304).
8'
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909.
8^
The series of tablets can be most easily consulted by the English-speaking
student in Miss Jane Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion,
chapter 11. Cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2. 480. The later language
" "
about the "wheel (or circle) of birth," the wheel of necessity," the wheel (rpox^s)
of destiny," seems to point to the sarnsdra.
to India, may deserve little credit. But they at least imply

a belief in possibilities of intercourse such as were open in
their own day and if the popular tale might pass on the
;
lips of sailors or merchants from the Punjaub to the ^gean,

there appears no reason why that process should not occa-
sionally operate the other way.
Now the Homeric Hymn to Apollo ( ? circa 800 b.c.)
contains a very remarkable story of the god's nativity.
It is thus translated by Mr. Andrew Lang. (Eileithyia has
arrived in Delos to aid the lady mother Leto.)
Even when Eileithyia, the helper in sore travailing,

set foot in Delos, then labour took hold on Leto, and
a passion to bring to the birth. Around a palm-tree
she cast her arms, and set her knees on the soft meadow,
while earth beneath smiled, and forth leaped the babe
to light, and all the Goddesses raised a cry. Then, great
Phoebus, the Goddesses washed thee in fair water, holy
and purely, and wound thee in white swaddling bands,
delicate, new woven, with a golden girdle round thee.
Nor did his mother suckle Apollo the golden-s worded,
but Themis with immortal hands first touched his lips
with nectar and sweet ambrosia, while Leto rejoiced, in
that she had borne her strong son, the bearer of the bow.
Then, Phoebus, as soon as thou hadst tasted the food
of Paradise, the golden bands were not proof against thy
pantings, nor bonds could bind thee, but all their ends
were loosened. Straightway among the Goddesses spoke
'
Phcebus Apollo Mine be the dear lyre and bended
:
bow, and I will utter to men the unerring counsel of

Zeus.'
So speaking he began to fare over the wide ways of
earth, Phoebus of the locks unshorn, Phoebus the Far-
darter. Thereon all the Goddesses were in amaze, and
all Delos blossomed with gold, as when a hill-top is
^^
heavy with woodland flowers.
It is a long way from Delos to theLumbini garden, the
traditional scene of the birth of Gotama, the future Buddha.
^ Cf. Theognis, 5-10, who adds that Delos was filled with ambrosial odor;
earth laughed and ocean rejoiced.
The spot is guaranteed to the pious disciple of to-day by

the discovery, in 1896, of a pillar erected by the Emperor
Asoka in reverent commemoration, about the year 243-242
B.C. There, according to the story in the Nidana-katha,
the Introduction to the Commentary on the Jiitaka-book,
the lady mother Maya was delivered of her son. It is a
singular illustration of the indifference of the Indian genius
to biographical detail that the vast collection of the ancient
scriptures contains no life of the Buddha comparable to one
of the Christian Gospels. The story of his life prior to the
^^
great Enlightenment is apparently assumed and the first ;
continuous narrative is several centuries later than the canon

in actual record. But its most characteristic features are
after all guaranteed as elements of great antiquity, partly
by the representation of some of them in sculptures of the
third century B.C., and partly by their occurrence within
the canon itself in a recital of the early history of VipassT,
the first of a series of seven Buddhas, of whom the historical
Gotama was the last. The frequent verbal coincidence
between this narrative ^^ and that of the Nidana-katha
renders it certain that they both rest on an earlier record
of Gotama's birth and youth, which has disappeared.^^
The incidents of the birth-legend are well known. *^ The
lady mother, Maya, perceiving that her time is near at hand,
is on a journey to the city of her own people. Upon the way
she rests in the Lumbinl grove, and there the hour arrives.
Like the mother of Apollo, she clasps the branch of a tree,
which bends down for her to grasp it ^^ and as she stands ;
supported by it, the future Buddha arises from within, and

issues from her right side, pure and fair. Four great devas
of the order of Brahma receive him, like the goddesses who
^ There are some important references to it in the enumeration of eight occa-

sions of earthquakes, Sacred Books, 11. 40.
*^
In the Mahapadana Suttanta, Digha Nikaya, 2. 12 ff.
*^
The proof cannot hegiven here hut I
; am glad to be supported in this con-
chision, formed after editing the text of the Mahapadana Suttanta, by the high
authority of Windisch, Buddha's Geburt, pp. 90 ff. (1908).
*'
These are related in abstract form as the characteristic events of the birth
of any Buddha, Majjhima Nikaya, 3. 118-124. Cf. Edmunds, Buddhist and
Christian Gospels, 1. 169 (1908, 4th ed.). The narrative of the Nidana-katha was
franslated by Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories, 1. 65ff. (1880).
88
Cf. Foucher, L'Art Greco-Bouddhique de Gandhara, pp. 301 ff. (1905).
welcomed Leto's babe. Two magic streams, one of cold

water and one of warm, descend from the sky, in which,
like the infant Apollo, the newborn babe is washed. In
a Chinese version ^^ Indra provides a garment of the finest
muslin, and wraps him in swaddling clothes, as the attendant
goddesses wound the young Greek god. But they can no
more confine a future Buddha than they could a son of
Zeus, and the destined teacher, who left the womb "like a
preacher descending from a pulpit," stands erect, and an-
nounces his supremacy over all existing beings, just as Apollo
proclaimed his future function to reveal the will of Heaven
to man. And just as Apollo set forth to fare over the wide
ways of earth, so did the future Buddha, after surveying the
world at all points of the compass from the zenith to the
nadir, take seven strides, symbolic of his spiritual sovereignty.
If for the Greek poet the earth smiled, and all Delos blos-
somed with golden bloom, so Indian imagination saw flowers
break out over land and water, while an immeasurable light
filled the ten thousand worlds.^
The resemblances between these two presentations may
no doubt be overestimated. An incident repeated in every
home must have some common elements wherever it occurs.
It is the uncommon elements that excite attention the —
mother clasping a tree^"* —
the painless birth the purity —
Beal, Romantic History of the Buddha, p. H.
*'
^°
Similarly in Jain legends, at the birth of Mahavira ; cf. Sacred Books, 12.
191, 251. At the birth of Christ "the heavenly throne laughed, and the world re-
joiced," Oracula Sibyllina, viii. 47G, cf. vi. 20.
^^^ This turns up again in the account of the birth of Jesus in the Koran, Sur.
xix. 23 ff; in 31 the babe speaks and declares himself the servant of God. Sale
(1734) already noticed the parallel with the Apollo story. — The action of the
goddess mother in supporting herself by a tree does not seem to have any paral-
lel in Greek mythology. But it is widespread in the lover culture. Mr. R. R.
Marett kindly refers me to Roth's Ethnological Studies among the North-AVest-
Central Queensland aborigines (Brisbane, 1897), where fig. 434 shows a small
illustration of a woman grasping some overhanging branch.
in act of The prac-
tice also occurs, I and the Rev. L. P. Jacks teils me that he
believe, in Africa,
was informed of it during a recent journey in Western Canada as a habit among
the Indians. In the Apollo story it is possible that it may be introduced to
explain the sanctity of the tree preserved in the sacred precincts at Delos. If
Apollo was a northern god (Farnell) as against an Asiatic origin (%'on Wilamowitz-
Mcillendorff), it would certainly not be original in any pre-Delian story of his
birth. According to Euripides there were two other sacred trees in the enclosure,
an olive and a bay but while there is some evidence that both these kinds oi
;
of the new born child the divine ministrations the — —

babe's abihty to speak and walk the sympathy of earth —
and sky expressive of the whole world's joy. But these do
not exhaust the points of contact between the Indian story
and the West. Thirty-two Good Omens marked the future
Buddha's birth. ^^ These are of various kinds, and may be
considered in two groups, one full of beneficence to humanity,
the other typical of nature's awe.
When the Hebrew prophet depicts the inauguration of a
new age, he tells of the opening of blind eyes, the unstopping
of deaf ears he promises that the lame shall leap and the
;
dumb sing there shall be waters in the wilderness and the

; ;
^^
prisoners shall come forth to liberty. Such were the
wonders of redeeming love. And similarly Indian hope,
looking to the Buddha as the deliverer from ignorance and
sin, conceived that at his birth the blind saw, the deaf heard,
and the dumb spake the crooked became straight, and the
;
lame walked the sick were healed the captive was freed
; ;
from his bonds the fires in each hell were put out. Foun-
;
tains of water welled up from the earth showers of heav- ;
enly blossoms descended the air was full of music and celes-; ;
tial perfumes were wafted from the sky. These wonders

express the fundamental harmony of the universe with the
Buddha's purpose of self-devotion to the welfare of gods and
men. They are not, it is true, related in the Pali Pitakas ;
nor can we expect to find them represented in sculpture.

But they occur in Sanskrit books which can be traced back
trees had a
special value in warding ofif evil influences and rendering parturition
easier (Mr. Sidney Hartland), there is no indication that they were ever clasped.
The kneeling attitude of the goddess is illustrated in various figures of Greek
art. Cf. the image of Eileithyia mentioned by Pausanias, viii. 48, 7, with
Frazer's note, vol. 4. p. 436: Sarater, Geburt, Hochzeit and Tod (1911),
pp. 7fiF. (unfortunately he ignores the tree). Mr. Hartland kindly forwards a
story (from the papers of Dr. A. C. Burnell) current among the Tuluvas of
southern India, in which a woman, beginning to feel the pangs of child-birth,
clasps a cocoanut tree beside the road the birth afterwards takes place in a
:
house, where a rope is hung up to facilitate the delivery. The attitude of hold-
ing a rope is usual in the East Indian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula
(Hartland).
^^
It is worth noting that the number corresponds to the thirty-two marks upon
his person as the incarnation of Maha Purisa. See the Mahapadana Suttanta,
Digha Nikaya, 2. 17 ff., and the Lakkhana Suttanta, ibid., 3. 142 ff.
'^
Isaiah xxxv. 5-6, Ixi. 1. Cf. Matthew xi. 5.
to the first century, and they are no doubt wholly indepen-

dent of Christian imagination. Both Hebrew and Buddhist
symbolism, however, have their antecedents. Max Miiller
pointed out long ago that the healing of physical defect was
"
part of ancient Vedic language.
^^
The lame stood, the blind
"
saw, Indra did this in the joy of Soma" Soma covers what:
is naked he heals all that is weak the blind saw, the lame
; ;
came forth." The commentators may differ as to the sub-

ject of the miracle,
—
the decrepit sun or a famous blind
sage,
—
but there is at least a trace of mythologic applica-
tion of healing activity. In Mesopotamia, as we have seen,
social disorganization was the precursor of the end of a world-
age it was natural that hope should be raised to the highest
;
at the beginning of a new one. Out of such expectations

came the court language with which the accession of a sov-
ereign was greeted, depicting the blessings which would
flow from his reign. ^^ When Assurbanipal came to the
"
throne, the pious scribe looked forward to days of justice,
years of righteousness abundant rainfall, mighty waters
: :
the gods are well disposed the old men hop, the chil-
: . . .
dren sing women and maidens marry, and bring boys and
:
girls into the world him whom his sins had given over to
:
death, my lord the king has left in life those who sat bound :
many years hast thou set free; them who were sick many
days hast thou healed the hungry are satisfied
: the lean :
have grown fat the naked are covered with clothes." ^^

:
So do the needs of men receive common expression in far-

sundered lands. Or may we conjecture that in such paral-
lels we touch the widespread diffusion of cognate ideas ?
Of this possibility a final illustration must suffice. Among
the Thirty-two Good Omens the Nidana-Katha reckons
two of curious significance. The birds paused in their flight,
and the rivers stayed their flow. In the highly embroidered
stvle of the Lalita Vistara ^^ "the moon, the sun, the heav-
enly cars, the planets, the crowd of stars, remained motion-
less the brooks and rivers ceased to run
;
all the labors ;
8*
Physical Religion, p. 393.
'*
Cf. Gressmann, Ursprung der Israelitisch-Jiidischen Eschatologie, pp. 260 ff.
'*
Schrader-Zimmern, Keilinschriften, p. 380 (3d ed.).
^^
Annales du Musee Guimet, 6. 94.
of men were interrupted." The great event held nature

"breathless with adoration": her course was unexpectedly
arrested into the incessant activity and change of the world
:
without there entered a sudden calm. A similar pause in

the outward scene accompanied (so ran the later story) the
birth of Christ. Every one knows that an early church
tradition located the event in a cave.''^ While it was occu-
^^
pied by the blessed Mary it was full of light, more splendid
than the light of the sun.^^ The child was born without
pain to the mother ; angels surrounded him and, as soon ;
as he came forth, he stood upon his feet, like Apollo and the
future Buddha, and received the homage of the heavenly
visitants.^**" These are contributions from the common
store. So probably is the remarkable description of what
Joseph saw when he went out to seek for help near Bethle-
hem "I looked up into the sky and saw the sky astonished ;
:
and I looked up to the pole of the heavens and saw it stand-

ing, and the birds of the air keeping still." On the earth
also everything became stationary. The sheep suddenly
stood still, and the hand of the shepherd raised to strike
them, remained up in the air. The water of the stream

ceased to flow, and the mouths of the kids rested on it with-
out drinking "everything which was being impelled forward
:
was intercepted in its course." ^"^ Van Eysinga finds here the
influence of the Indian tale.^°^ This is of course possible,
but it is not necessary. The idea is as old as the Homeric
story of Athena's birth. When the goddess sprang in full
panoply from the holy head of Zeus, the world below showed
every sign of agitation and sympathy "the earth rang :
5^ So
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, 78, and the Protevangelium of James,
chapter 18. Mithras, too, was born out of the rock, and Hermes in a cave on
Mount Cyllene Justin, op. cit., 70 Meyer in Hennecke's Handbuch zu den neu-
; ;
testamentlichen Apokryphen, p. 126 (1904). Bauer, Das Leben Jesu im Zeitalterder

neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, p. 66 (1909), supposes that Mary's retirement was
for purposes of secrecy, and had no special mythological implication. Very curi-
ous is the late Chinese legend of the birth of Confucius, which seems to be touched
with Buddhist influence. His mother goes to a cave to be confined. Two drag-
ons come and keep watch outside on the hill, and two spirit ladies pour out fra-
grant odors within a spring of clear warm water bubbles up from the floor, which
;
dries up when the babe has been washed. Legge, Chinese Classics, 1. 59 (2d ed.,
'^ '''
Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, iii.
1893). Pseudo-Matthew, xiii.
^'"' •"'
Pseudo-Matthew, xiii. Protevangelium of James, xviii.
^"^
Indische Einfliisse auf Evangelische Erzahlungen, p. 78 (2d ed., 1909).
terribly around, and the sea boiled with dark waves and broke
forth suddenly with foam." But the majestic wonder of
heaven expressed itself differently. "The glorious son of
^°^
Hyperion checked for long his swift steeds." In other
words, the sun stood still in the sky.
One final witness may be heard. Ishodad of Merv, about
850 A.D., commenting on the story of the Baptism in Matthew
iii. observes :
Straightway, as the Diatessaron testifies, Hght shone forth, and over

the Jordan was spread a veil of white clouds, and there appeared many
hosts of spiritual beings who were praising God in the air. And quietly
Jordan stood still from its flowing, its waters being at rest, and a sweet
odor was wafted from thence.^"^
Five separate items meet us here (1) a great light ;

:
(2) white clouds over the river (3) a multitude of spirits

; ;
(4) the arrest of the stream (5) the heavenly odors.

; The
burst of light belonged to early tradition, as it appears in
the fragments of the Gospel of the Ebionites.^"^ Scent,
according to Dr. Harris, is elsewhere connected with the
manifestation of the Holy Spirit. It is not necessary to
argue on the line of the well-known reading of D in Luke iii.

22, that we have here to do with the real birthday of the
Messiah as Son of God, so that we have phenomena analo-
gous to those of the Buddha's nativity. The parallel to
the Baptism when Jesus of Nazareth was supposed to have
" "
become God's Anointed through the unction of the Holy
Spirit is found in that hour of Enlightenment when Gotama
attained the knowledge which would make him the teacher
of gods and men. fitting that the Thirty-two Good
It was
Omens should be then repeated. The shining light, the
heavenly choir, the stationary waters, the celestial scents,
correspond in both stories. One item remains unexplained,
— the white clouds. It is noticeable that they are men-
tioned just before the singers from the sky may it not be :
conjectured that it was in this form that the holy companies

^"^
Horn. Hymn, xxvii.
1"^
Dr. Rendell Harris, Fragments. of the Commentary of Ephrem Syrus upon
the Diatessaron, p. 43 (1895).
'"5
Preuschen, Antilegomena, p. 11, 1. 13 (2d ed., 1905). In Justin, Dialogue with
Trypho, 18, fire breaks out upon the water.
became visible ? In a Chinese version of the Buddha-carita

of Agvaghosha we read, "Countless devas delighting in
^"^
religion like clouds assembled."
It is quite possible that there is some direct contact here.
But was Ishodad right in attributing all these details to the
Diatessaron and, if so, where and how were they inserted ?
;
Such decorations may easily have been added in the further

East, under suggestion from a faith containing so many
similar motives. But they may also be derived from that
vast fund of imaginative material which lies beneath all
historic forms deep in the consciousness of whole peoples,
ready to be called into light by the stimulus of great ideas.
In ages when the different national cultures were much more
nearly on the same intellectual levels than they are now,
it would seem more possible for such a picture-language
to be widely diffused from land to land. The means of its
transmission it is no longer in our power to trace. Conquest
and deportation on the one hand and commerce on the other
were no doubt among the chief agencies. It must be enough
for the student, seeking to make his way among the specu-
lations of the past, if he can discover such occasional parallels
as may imply a common outlook upon life, a common hope
for human welfare, a common reverence for the 'fair and
good.'
106 Sacred Books, 19. 6.
Oxford,
July, 1910.
SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS IN EARLY
IRISH LITERATURE
Fred Norris Robinson
Harvard University
It would appear from various references in Elizabethan
writers that the feature of Irish Hterature which most im-
pressed Enghshmen of the time was the supposed power of
Irish poets to work destruction with their verse. Sidney,
at the end of his Defense of Poesy, in his parting curse upon
the disdainer of the art, will not wish him "the ass's ears
of Midas, nor to be driven by a Poet's verses, as Bubonax
was, to hang himself, nor to be rhymed to death, as is said
"
to be done in Ireland. ^ Again, in Reginald Scot's Dis-
covery of Witchcraft, it is said that Irishmen, speaking of
their witches, "will not stick to affirm that they can rhyme
"
either man or beast to death. ^ And a number of writers
refer to the destruction of rats by means of such potent
verses. In the Epilogue to Ben Jonson's Poetaster,^ the
author declares that he will
Rhyme them to death, as they do Irish rats,

In drumming tunes ;
and Rosalind, in As You Like It, humorously compares Or-

lando's rhymes to those which had released her soul from a
lower existence and helped it to achieve its transmigration.
"I was never so berhymed," she declares, "since Pythago-
ras' time, that I was an Irish rat, which I can hardly
"
remember. ^
» «
Sidney's Works, ed. 1724, 3. 52. ej, jges, p. 35.
3
Jonson's Works, ed. Gifford (1S75), 5. 518.
^
As You Like It, act iii. Scene 2. Other references to the subject, some of them
of considerably later date, will be found in Ben Jonson's Staple of News, act iv,
95
96 SATIRISTS AND ENCHANTERS
The
story of the destruction or expulsion of rats or mice
is toldof a number of Irishmen in different periods.
In fact Eugene O 'Curry, who made a report on the subject
in 1855, for the Royal Irish Academy,^ remarks that he
once tried to perform the feat himself, but failed, perhaps
because his words were too hard for the vermin to under-
stand The most famous early instance, probably, is that
!
of the poet Senchan, who lived in the seventh century. Ac-

cording to the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution
(Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe),^ a tale of the Middle Irish
period, an egg which had been saved for Senchan 's
meal was eaten up by the "nimble race," namely, the mice.
"That was not proper for them," said Senchan; "never-
theless there is not a king or chief, be he ever so great, but
these mice would wish to leave the traces of their own teeth
in his food and in that they err, for food should not be used
;
by any person after (the print of) their teeth and I will ;
satirize them." Then follow stanzas in which Senchan

threatens the mice with death, and they beg him to accept
compensation instead. As a result of his verses, ten mice
Scene 1 (Gifford's ed., 5.271); Randolph's Jealous Lovers, act v. Scene 1;

Rhymes against Martin Marprelate, cited by Nares from Herbert's Typographical
Antiquities, p. 1689 (the whole poem printed in D
'Israeli's Quarrels of Authors, 2.
255-263) Sir William Temple's Essay on Poetry, in his works (ed. 1757), 3. 418;
;
Swift's Advice to a Young Poet (ed. Scott, 9. 407); and Pope's version of
Donne's Second Satire, line 23. Most of these passages were cited in Nares'
Glossary, under Rats Rimed to Death; for further discussion see an article by
Todd, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 1855, pp. 355 ff.
*
O 'Curry's materials were presented in Dr. Todd's paper in the Proceedings for
1855. He mentions one instance of rat-rhyming in 1776, and another about 1820.
Cases of the same sort among the Highland Gaels are cited by the Rev. Alexander
Stewart in Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe (Edinburgh, 1885). A long spell said to
have been composed and successfully used by a farmer on the Island of Lismore is
given by Stewart on pp. 4 ff. Somewhat different from these stories of rat-rhymers
is the case related by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gemma Ecclesiastica, Rolls Series,
161) of St. Yvor the bishop, who by his curse expelled the rats (majores mures,
qui vulgariter rati vocantur) from an Irish province because they had gnawed
his books. This was conceived by Ginaldus as a Christian miracle, and is
cited, along with the story of St. Patrick and the snakes, to illustrate the fearful
effects of excommunication. Still another method of disposing of rats is familiar
to everybody in the legend of the Piper of Hamelin.

^
Edited and translated by O. Connellan in the Transactions of the Ossianic
Society, vol. 5, Dublin, 1860. The Irish title means simply the Circuit of the Bur-
densome Company, but the tale is usually referred to in English by Connellan 's
rendering, as given above.
FRED NORRIS ROBINSON 97
felldead in his presence whereupon he said to them "It is

; :
not you that I ought to have satirized, but the party whose
duty it is to suppress you, namely, the tribe of cats." And
then he pronounced a satire on Irusan, the chief, lord, and
Brehon of all the cats. But the victim this time took the at-
tack less meekly. Irusan came
" —
blunt-mouthed, rapa-
cious, panting, determined, jagged-eared, broad-breasted
prominent-jointed, sharp and smooth-clawed, split-nosed,
sharp and rough-toothed, thick-mouthed, nimble, powerful,
deep-flanked, terror-striking, angry, extremely vindictive,
quick, purring, glare-eyed,"
—
in this guise he came and
carried off Senchan on his back and the poet, after trying
;
flattery without avail, was barely saved by St. Kieran, who

killed Irusan as he passed his cell.
Exploits like these doubtless appealed to the English
as being particularly appropriate to poets of the 'wild Irish,'
whose extraordinary character and customs were a favorite
topic with British writers from Giraldus Cambrensis down
to Edmund Spenser.^ And the story of Senchan itself is
old enough to have been known in England before the days
of Elizabeth.
"
The Middle Great Bardic Company"
Irish account of the
will be discussed again later. But it is already clear from
the passages quoted that 'satire,' or the Irish term which
is so translated, is not employed in the ordinary English
sense of the word. The poet's victims, whether rats and

cats, as in the tale of Senchan, or men, as in many stories to
be mentioned later, are not destroyed by the natural opera-
tion of literary art. The verses used are magic spells, and
the whole procedure belongs in the realm of sorcery. This
was recognized by Reginald Scot, who classed the Irish
rat-spells with other performances of witches or 'eye-biters' ;
and by Sir William Temple, who associated the Irish prac-

tice in question with the magic runes of the ancient Teu-
tons.^ The use of incantations to accomplish supernatural
^
British treatment of Irish history has long been a grievance to Irish writers.
Perhaps the best way of getting at the traditional accounts of the 'wild Irish' is
by consulting the rejoinders of such native writers as Keating in his Forus Feasa
air Eirinn, or Lynch in his Cambrensis Eversus. See also the Rev. Dr. T. J. Shahan '3
survey of the subject in the Am. Cath. Quarterly Review, 28. 310 ff.
^
For references to Scot and Temple, see pp. 95, 96, above.
ends, whether of good or evil, is so famihar the world over

that this obvious interpretation of the Irish story needs no
defence or illustration and one might at first be disposed to
;
dismiss the whole matter with the suggestion that 'satire'

is not a suitable translation of the Irish term for such verses
as those of Senchan. There is manifestly a "long and large

difference" between these talismanic spells, often half-
meaningless in content, and the highly acute and intellec-
tual form of poetry which has been chiefly known in Europe
by the name of satire. It seems like an unjustifiable loose-
ness in language to use the same word for such dissimilar
things. But as soon as one begins to examine the so-called
satirical material in Irish literature, one finds difficulties
in dispensing with the name. In the first place, the Irish
language itself employs the same words (most commonly
aer and its derivatives)^ for the rat-spells of Senchan and
for the stricter satire of a later age. Furthermore, the per-
sons described as pronouncing satires, even of the old de-
structive sort, were by no means always mere enchanters,
but in many cases poets of high station, either in history
or in saga. And finall}^ the subjects of their maleficent
verse — often, example,
for the inhospitality or other vices
of chieftains — are such as
might form suitable themes of
genuine satire and the purpose of the poets is frequently
;
described as being to produce ridicule and shame. In

short, it seems impossible in old Celtic literature to draw
a line between what is strictly satire and what is not and ;
one ends by realizing that, for the ancient Celts themselves,

the distinction did not exist. Just as their poets were not
clearly separable from druids and medicine-men, but often
combined in one person the functions of all three, ^° so they
freely mingled natural and supernatural processes in the
practice of their arts. Destructive spells and poems of
slander or abuse were all thought of together as the work,
and it sometimes seems almost the chief work, of the tribal
'
For a further account of the
Irish terms, see pp. 103 ff., below.
^^
The
confusion among these different classes is well set forth, with illustra-
tive passages, by C. Plummer, Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, 1. pp. clx.-clxii. Compare
also pp. 121, 123, below, for examples of the combination of different magic arts by
poets and poetesses.
man of letters. And the retention of one term for all these
products, at least while speaking of a literature where such
conditions prevailed, is certainly defensible, and may be posi-
tively instructive in emphasizing the continuity of literary
development.
Of course it is not to be supposed that Irish literature is
peculiar the
in respects that have been described. The
combination of the functions of poet and magician is char-
acteristic of early stages of civilization and appears in many
parts of the world. Among various peoples, too, the sa-
tirical office of the poet has been given special prominence ;
and where this is the case, in simple states of society, a cer-
tain amount of sorcery may always be suspected in the
poet's work. But in the literature of the Kulturvbllcer evi-
dence is not always preserved of the lower civilization that
went before, and the relation between sorcery and satire is
by no means everywhere apparent. In Greek and Latin, for
example, there are comparatively few traces of the magician-
poet, though the use of incantations was common enough in
ancient classical civilization and the terms eTraoihrj and car-
men have a well-recognized magic association.^^ The famil-
iar story of Archilochus, whose iambics led to the death of
Lycambes and his daughters, shows, to be sure, the destruc-

tive power of satire. But it is hardly a case in point, unless
it be assumed that an original story of magical destruction
has been rationalized into an account of death from shame ;
and there is no necessity for such an assumption.^- In

general, the satire of the Greeks and Romans cannot be
^^
easily traced back beyond a fairly sophisticated age and ;
^'
For a convenient survey of the evidence concerning the use of incantations
in Greek and Roman civilization, see an article on Grseco-Italian Magic, by F. B.
Jevons, in Anthropology and the Classics (Oxford, 1908), pp. 93 fiF.
^^
The story seems more hkely to have been a late invention. For the authori-
ties, and a possible explanation of its origin, see Croiset, Histoire de la Litteratiu-e
Grecque (1890), 2. 180. And the death of Bupalus, the victim of Hipponax,
of which Sidney's Bubonax (p. 95, above) seems to show a confused memory,
is of similarly doubtful authority.
'^
popular Spoiilieder in Greece and Italy,
For certain evidences of ancient
which suggest conditions similar to those among Germans and Celts, see Usener,
Rheinisches Museum, 56. 1 ff Hirt, Die Indogermanen (1905), 2. 478-479, 728.
.
;
One cannot help suspecting in the light of the Irish material to be here discussed,
that there was more of a magic element than Usener recognized in the old Italic
poems of abuse.
the satire of modern Europe, it may be added, is in large

measure classical and
literary in origin.
Better parallels to the Irish situation are furnished by the
popular poetry of ancient Arabia. There, according to an
opinion which has found favour with Arabic scholars, the com- '
mon name of the poet, Shci'ir, meant originally the knowing

'
^^
one, the one possessed of supernatural knowledge. There,
as in Ireland, the satirical function of the order is very con-
spicuous. Men give the poets rich gifts to escape disfavor,
or place them under restraint and punishment as dangerous
persons. In one instance, said, the Calif Al-Mansur

it is
abandoned marriage with a noble woman of the Taghlib for

fear of the effects of a satire which Djarir had pronounced
against her. A large number of the old Arabic satires have
been preserved, and with regard to them, as with regard to
the Irish poems, it is hard to say how far they are real lam-
poons and how far incantations.^^ The supernatural ele-
ment, so far as the present writer has observed, is less
emphasized in the Arabic than in the Irish, and there is more
real satire, more genuine mockery or criticism, in the Arabic

verses. The Arabs had perhaps advanced a step farther
than the Irish from the stage of the magician-poet.^^ But,
on the whole, the similarity between the two literatures in
the matters under discussion is most striking and instructive.
Among the peoples of central and northern Europe it
can hardly be doubted that conditions like those of the
Irish once prevailed, though evidence on the subject is
comparatively scanty. Incantations make up an important
element in the popular poetry of the Finns, and Comparetti
" For a full statement of the
theory see Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur Arabi-
schcn Philologie (Leiden, 1890), pp. 1-10,'5. Coldziher's article contains much
material of interest to students of European popular poetry. His main conclusion
is briefly restated and indorsed by M. J. de Goeje, Die Arabisclie Literatur, in
Kultiir (ler GcRenwart, Orientalische Literaturen, pp. 134 ff. Compare also Broc-
kciinann, Gescbichte der Arabischen Litteratur (1901), pp. 7 ff.
'*
Professor G. F. Moore called the writer's attention to the fact that Rilckert,
in his translation of the Hamfisa. employed the term Schmiihlieder for all such poems,
just as writers on Irish have called them 'satires.' Freytag, similarly, in his edition
of the Ilamasa, translated the Arabic subtitle (Bab el-Hija') as Caput Satyrarum,
and the Arabic Hija has acquired this general sense. But Goldziher (see partic-
ularly pp. 26 ff. of his article) argues that it meant originally a curse or spell; thus
it constitutes an interesting parallel to the development of the Irish aer.
" This is consistent with the view
expressed by De Goeje, op. cit., p. 134.
has argued effectively to show that the primary sense of the

Finnish runo was a magic spell. ^^ But it is not clear that
there was much development in the direction of personal
satire. In old Germanic poetry there can be no question as
to the prevalence of the Zauberlied,^^ and there is also testi-
mony, though not so abundant as one could wish, to the ex-
istence of the Spottlied from a very early time.^^ That the
two types probably stood in close relation, it is one of the
purposes of the present discussion to show. But the exist-
ence of the destructive satirists on Germanic territory is
not altogether a matter of inference. Their practices seem to
be contemplated in an ecclesiastical canon of the year 744.^°
A definite case also seems to be furnished by the story
of Hug timidus, in the ninth century, whose servants sang
against him and inspired such terror that the victim did
not dare step out of doors. -^ Coming down to later ages,
it is well known that in Iceland of the saga period, satirical
poems were greatly feared and the poets were strictly dealt
with in the laws ^^ and even in the seventeenth century
;
^' Finni
See Comparetti, II Kalevala, o la Poesia Tradizionale dei (Reale
Accademia dei Lincei,Roma, 1891), pp. 23 ff.
^*
See E. Mogk, Kelten und Nordgermanen, p. 12 ; also his article in the Arkiv
for Nordisk Filologi, 17. 277 ff. In the latter place he even argues that the
Zauberlied was the chief form of early Germanic poetry, and that the oldest Ger-
manic names for poems {ljo(f, galdr, and the Finnish runo, borrowed from Ger-
manic) had reference primarily to spells.
1'
For evidence concerning early SpoUlieder see Kogel's Literatiirgeschichte, vol.
1, part i, pp. 55 ff., 208; vol. 1, part ii, pp. 164-165; also Kogel's article in Paul's
Grundriss (2d ed.), 2. 48 ff., 68 ff. The very early instance mentioned in Au-
sonius (Moselle, 167), of the probra sung against seris cultoribus among the Treviri
has been counted by some scholars as Germanic, and by others as Celtic, or even
as Roman. See Kogel, vol. 1, part i, p. 55 C. JuUian, Rev. Arch. 40. 321 Martin,
; ;
Gbtt. Gel. Anz., 1893, p. 128. Brandl, in his article on Altenglische Literatur-
geschichte, in Paul's Grundriss, 2d edition, 2. 974, mentions the Anglo-Saxon
'
dreamas, gesellschaftliche Lieder,^ and conjectures that the Spottlied (bismerleo/))

must have figured prominently among them.
2"
On
the canon see Miillenhoff in Haupt's Zeitschrift, 9. 130. There is some
doubt, it should be said, concerning its application to Germanic conditions; and
in general, as Professor Wiener has collected material to show, it is necessary to be
cautious in deriving from ecclesiastical canons, which were taken over literally from
one council to another, evidences as to local beliefs and practices.
2'
The story is told in Thegan's Life of Louis the Pious, chapter 28, and is cited
by Kogel, Literaturgeschichte, vol. 1, part i, p. 208.
Weinhold, Altnordisches Leben, pp. 341 ff., 465; Finnur Jonsson, Den
^2
Cf.
Oldnorske og Oldislandske Litteraturs Historic, 2. 18, 133-139; and for a number of
references to sagas, Vigfusson's Dictionary, under dariz, fiim, and niS.
Isaac de la Peyrere, a French traveller in Iceland, testified to

"
the belief that the wound given by a mad dog was scarce
more dangerous than [the] venomous satyrs" of the
poets.
^^
It is possible, moreover, that the common name
for a poet in the West Germanic languages (Anglo-Saxon
scop. Old High German scof) contains the same root as
the verb 'to scoff.' The etymology is not well enough
established to be used as proof of the importance of satirical
verse among the West Germanic peoples but on the other ;
hand, such evidence from other literatures as has here been

presented removes any serious objection, on semasiological
grounds, to the association of the two groups of words.
^^
The poets of the Celts seem to have been famous, even

in antiquity, for their use of satire and malediction. One
of the oldest classical references to Celtic literature, a well-
known passage in Diodorus Siculus, perhaps derived by him
from Posidonius, says that the bards, "singing to instruments
like lyres, praise some men and abuse others." ^^ And down
^'
The quotation is from the English version of the Relation de I'lslande of
La Peyrere (in Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels) (1704), 2. 437.
See Farley, Scandinavian Influences in the English Romantic Movement (Har-
vard Studies and Notes, vol. 10), pp. 19 ff.
2*
On the etymology of scop there is still considerable difference of opinion.
The word was formerly held to have a long vowel and was brought into con-
nection with scieppan (compare the relation of woLriT-î and irotôj). When
the vowel was seen to be short, this etymology became harder to support;
but Kdgel in his Literaturgeschichte, vol. 1, part i, pp. 140 ff., still defended it,
assuming a theoretic *skup6- with Tiefsfiife of the Ablaut. In Paul's Grundriss,
2d ed., 2. 34, however, he changed his explanation and proposed to connect the
word with the root scq-, sqe-, in (vve-ire, Lat. insece, and perhaps the Anglo-
'
Saxon specan. In favor of the association with 'scoff see Kluge, Engl.
Stud. 8. 480, quoted with approval by Gummere, Old English Ballads (1894),
p. xxxii. This explanation is adopted in the New English Dictionary, under
scop, and in Torp's Worlschatz der Germanischen Spracheinheit (Picks Wdrter-
buch), 3. 409. The Irish faith, 'poet' (cognate with Lat. vates), and the Welsh
gwawd, 'mockery,' perhaps show a similar relation in meaning. See Zimmer, Die
Keltischen Literaturen (in Kultur der Gegenwart), p. 77, n. The old Norse
skald, if related to scold, schelten, etc., would furnish another parallel. This etymol-
ogy, defended in Vigfusson's Dictionary, p. 541, is rejected by several later w riters,
though no oth'^r has been clearly established in its place. Compare Liden in
Paul and Braune's Beitrage, 15. 507 ff .
Mogk, in Paul's Grundriss, 2d ed., 2. 657;
;
and F. Jonsson, Litteraturs Historie, 1. 329 ff.

^^
Diodorus, V. 31. 2. Ovtoi Se juer' dpydvoji' raTs \vpaii 6jj.oiuv ifdovres oi/s fjiiv vfu-
M. Camille JuUian, in a discussion of this passage (in
vovaiv, ovs 5k 0\a(T(t)r]txoO(ri.
Revue Archeologique, 40. 321), cites also classical testimony on the use by the
ancient Celts of invectives in battle. This custom, which is frequently referred to
to modern times, in both the main branches of Celtic lit-
erature, the Gaelic and the Brythonic, the twofold function

of the bards, to praise and to blame, has been well recognized
and freely exerted. Their supernatural power, too, has
never ceased to be feared and it was related of no less a poet
;
than Dafydd ap Gwilym, almost a contemporary of Chaucer,

that he killed a literary antagonist by the virulence of his
verse.^^ On the whole, as might be expected, the magic
aspect of the satirist's work was more emphasized in the
early ages of lower civilization, and it is consequently con-
spicuous in Irish literature, which preserves most abundant
evidence concerning those periods. Irish also exhibits
very clearly the close connection between the poetry of
magic malediction and the poetry of mockery and abuse,
and shows the importance of satire, of whatever sort, as
an element in the life of simple peoples. Numerous pro-
visions concerning satirists appear in the ancient law of the
land their maledictions are even recognized among the sanc-
;
tions of treaties rules for the making of satires are laid down
;
in the native treatises on poetry and in the ancient popular

;
sagas the part of satirist is played again and again by im-

portant poets, whose power often determines the fate of
great national heroes.
Some of the evidence of these peculiar conditions will be
taken up in the pages that follow. But a brief explanation of
the Irish terms for satire ought perhaps to be given first. Sat-
irists are often referred to in Irish texts by the general words
for poet {file, hard, licerd, aes dana, etc.), druid {drui), or
seer (fdith) and it has already been pointed out that the
;
classes namedare freely confused, or at least exchange

their functions, in the older sagas."'' With specific reference
to satire the terms most frequently employed are aer and
cdined and their derivatives. Common use is also made of
ainmed, 'blemishing,' imdergad, 'reddening,' and rindad,
'
'cutting ; all of which seem to have reference primarily
in both Celticand Germanic sagas, is closely related to the other forms of satire
under consideration. See Goldziher, Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie,
pp. 26-27, for similar observations with regard to Arabic.
^^
For the strife between Dafydd and Rhys Meigen see Barddoniaeth Dafydd
ap Gwilym (1789), pp. xi. ff., 452 flF. ; also I-. C. Stern in the Zeitschrift fUr celt-
'"
ische Philologie, 7. 26 ff. See p. 98, above.
to the physical effects of the satirist's attack. Somewhat

less frequent in occurrence are ail, 'disgrace,' aithgiud,
'sharpening' ( ?), aithisiugud, 'reviling,' ainjhialad, 'dis-

honoring,' cuithiud, 'laughter, ridicule,' ecnad, 'reviling'
(sometimes used in the religious sense of 'blaspheming'),
mifhoclad, 'speaking ill,' and sinnad, of which the primary
sense is not clear. The word gldm, especially in the phrase
gidm dichenn, usually refers to a special form of incantation
which will be described later, but it is sometimes more loosely
^*
employed and groma, likewise, appears in the laws to be
;
associated with a particular process called the glas-gabailP

Of only occasional, or even rare, occurrence are dul, explained
' '
^°
in Cormac's Glossary as cainte, satirist runa, once used ;
^^
in the laws for satires and hired or berach, uncertain both
;
in in meaning, but apparently applied to a woman-

form and
satirist in a passage of the laws.^' The word crosan, also,
of which the usual meaning is 'juggler' or 'buffoon,' some-
times means 'satirist' as well.^^ Names for satire and the
practitioners of the art are thus seen to be rather numerous
in the Irish language, and they describe various aspects
of the satirists' work. Some of them are restricted in ap-
plication, but the majority are used loosely, and appear
frequently in combinations of two or three even when re-
ferring to a single satirical performance. It is noteworthy,
moreover, that in their use no distinction is made, or at all
events steadily maintained, between the natural and the
supernatural, between the satire of magic malediction and
the satire of mockery or abuse.
To come to the actual accounts of the Irish satirists,
frequent mention of them is made in the various tracts of
the Brehon laws, which preserve, as is well known, most
^ For the gldm dichennsee p. 108, below for other uses of the word, and some
;
suggestions as to fundamental meaning, see Windisch's edition of the Tdin B6

its
Cuailnge (Irische Texte, Extraband), p. 241.

^'•'
On the glas-gabail see p. 106, below.
30
YoT references to satire in Cormac's Glossary see pp. 109 ff ., below.
^^
31
Ancient Laws, ed. O'Curry, 5. 230. /^j^ 5 455 ff.
^ See Todd's edition of the Irish version of Nennius (Irish Archaeolo^cai
Society, 1848), p. 162; also Kuno Meyer's Contributions to Irish Lexicography,
under crosan. A pecuUar use of the word appears in the Senadh Saighri, ed. by
Meyer in the Gaelic Journal, 4. 108.
valuable evidence of the conditions of ancient Irish life.

It is clear that satirical attacks were a common form of in-
jury in all classes of society.^* In the law of distress (i.e.
the law relating to the seizure of property to be held for the
enforcement of a claim) it is provided that three days' stay
shall regularly be allowed in cases of ordinary satire, slander,
^^
betrayal, or false witness but five days' stay is the pre-
;
scribed period for other offences, among which are the blemish
of a nickname, satirizing a man after his death, and satire
of exceptional power ( ?).^^ In these passages satire is
classified with "crimes of the tongue." Elsewhere, as in the
law relating to mc-fines, satirizing and assault are treated to-
gether,^^ and again, these two forms of injury are associated
with the stealing of a man's cattle or the violation of his wife.^^
The damages allowed for satire, as for other injuries, depend
in part upon the rank of the person injured. It is more se-
rious to satirize a king's son than a lower chief ,^^ and a hench-
man has a smaller indemnity than a chief of aire-fene rank.'**'
From several places it appears that satire was in some way
to be resisted and a distinction is made between lawful
;
'^^
and unlawful satire, comparable, as O'Curry has pointed out,

to the distinction in the English law of libel. ^^ Just as in
the case of fasting against an enemy or a debtor a familiar —
old Irish method of enforcing a claim or extorting a benefit ^^
— so in this matter of persecution by poets, the law seems
to have recognized, and to have sought to regulate, an
ancient custom which was liable to dangerous abuse.
**
With the references to satire in the Irish laws should be compared the treatment
of the subject in Italic and Germanic laws, already referred to. See particulariy
Usener on Italische Volksjustiz in Rheinisches Museum, 56. 1 ff., and Weinhold,
Altnordisches Leben, pp. 341 ff.
^^
Ancient Laws of Ireland, 1. 152, 162, 231 (published by the Government,
Dublin, 1865-1901). The language of the English translation is quoted, except
where there is special reason to depart from it.
^^
Ancient Laws, 1. 185, 237. The last phrase is translated conjecturallj'. See
d'Arbois de Jubainville, Etudes sur le Droit Celtique, 2. 181. For discussion of
certain inconsistencies in the laws of distress, see the same work, 2. 159 ff.
37
Ibid. 2. 156; 5. 143, 156. ^ Ibid. 5. 512.
39
Ibid. 2. 156. ^«
Ibid. 4. 348, 352. « Ibid. 5. 168, 172.
^ Ibid. 1. 58; 5. 168, 172, 388. For O'Curry's comment see the Proceedings
of the
Royal Irish Academy, 1855, p. 357.
^ On
fasting as a means of distraint, see an article by the present writer in the
Putnam Anniversary Volume (Cedar Rapids, la., 1909), pp. 567 ff.
In the treatise on Customary Law there is a general analy-

sis of crime (Irish eiiged, a term which apparently had the
general meaning of 'excess' or 'abnormality'), and several
kinds of satire are mentioned, though the distinctions among
them are not made very clear.^^ Eitged of words is said to
comprise spying, satirizing, and nicknaming. 'White eitged''
is distinguished from 'black eitged,'' the white of flattery
from the black of satire. 'Speckled eitged' is explained as

referring to the three words of warning, gromfa gromfa,
glamfa glamfa, aerfa aerfa, which the English translator
of the laws, for lack of specific equivalents, renders "I will
grom-saiirize, I will grro//i-satirize ; I will <7/a/«-satirize, I
will ^/a7?« -satirize ;
I will satirize, I will satirize." Aeraim
'
(future aerfa) the most usual word for

is satirize,' as
already stated ;^^ glamfa is said by the Irish commentator
on the passage to refer to the glam dichenn, which will be
described later ; ^^ and gromfa is similarly connected with the
glas-gabail, a procedure of uncertain character.^^ That
'speckled eitged' is fundamentally of magical nature is clear
from the whole account of it.
Another legal compilation, the Heptads,^^ designates
seven kinds of satire and discusses the 'honor-price' appro-
priate to each: "There are with the Feine seven kinds of
satire for which dire is estimated a nickname which clings ; ;
recitation of a satire of insults in his absence ; to satirize the

face to laugh on all sides ; to sneer at his form to magnify
; ;
a blemish satire which is written by a bard who is far away,

;
^^
and which is recited." This classification, which is clearly
the product of custom rather than of pure logic, is not al-
together clear, even with the glosses of the native commen-
tators. But the passage shows the usual association of
mockery, invective, and magical injury. It is followed by
**
Ancient Laws, 3. 92 «
See p. 103, above.
ff.
« See p. 108, below.
*'
Theglas-gabail mentioned,
is but not explained, in the Ancient Laws, 6.
216. In the same volume, p. 230, it is glossed glama gnuisi, 'satirizing the face.'
If this refers to the disfigurement by bhsters, the glas-gabail does not seem to be
anything very different from the glam dichenn, at least in its effects.
^ Ancient Laws, 5. 228.
*^
The last sentence contains one or two obscure words which are not translated.
With regard to the distinction between author and reciter, it is to be noted that
the Roman Twelve Tables provided for the punishment of both quis (.s-i"
occentauisset aiue carmen condidisset) Cf. Usener, Rheinisches Museum, 56. 3.

.
regulations, which need not be repeated here, concerning

the payment of honor-price to the aggrieved man and his
descendants.
In decidedly the greater number of passages in the laws
satire is treated as a kind of misdemeanor and the satirist
condemned. Thus satirists are classed among the men for
whom no one may go surety ;^° and woman-satirists, along
with thieves, liars, and bush-strumpets, are said to have no
claim to an honor-price.^^ Similarly, the son of a woman-
satirist, like the son of a bondmaid, is declared to be ineli-
gible to chieftaincy.^- And the same disparagement of
the class appears in the definition of a demon-banquet as
"
a banquet given to the sons of death and bad men, i.e
to lewd persons and satirists, and jesters, and buffoons, and
mountebanks, and outlaws, and heathens, and harlots,
and bad people in general which is not given for earthly
obligation or for heavenly reward
;
—
such a feast is for-
^^
feited to the demon." In all these places reference
seems to be made primarily to a low sort of sorcerers and
traffickers in personal abuse. But the satirist was not
always so conceived by the makers of the laws. Just as
there was a distinction, already referred to, between lawful
and unlawful satire, so the poet was sometimes praised and
rewarded, rather than blamed, for his exercise of the satiriz-
ing function. It may be doubted whether an honor or a re-
proach to the order is implied by the law that puts the house
of a satirist, along with that of a king and that of a thief,
among those into which it is forbidden to drive cattle seized
in distraint ^^ but other references are less ambiguous.
; Be-
cause of his office as eulogist and satirist alike, the poet is
mentioned among the men who have the special privilege
of speaking in public. ^^ In another place, poets are declared
to have peculiar rights and claims because of their services
in composing lawful praise on the one hand, and on the other
^^
Ancient Laws, 5. 225. Cf. also d'Arbois de Jubainville, Etudes sur le Droit
Celtique, 2. 26.
^1
Ancient Laws, 176. For the association with strumpets, cf. also pp. 202-204^.
*2
Ancient Laws, 5. 456. « 75 j^ 3 25.
^ Ibid. 5. 266-268. Compare also the law (5. 235) which exempts poets, with
kings, bishops, insane men, and others, from responsibility for paying their sons'
debts. 55 I i9_
jijid^
hand, in levying taxes in territories where 'points of satire'

are regarded and where 'points of weapons' are not.^^
And the same power of the poets which is reckoned as a
means of enforcing tribute, is also invoked in treaties as
a sanction of their observance." The satire employed
for such purposes was doubtless for the most part wizardry,
but it may have included some ridicule and some appeal to
^^
the public opinion of the tribe. At all events, by virtue
of its exercise, the satirists obtained a considerable degree
of recognition as public servants.
The formal recognition, and even the Christian adoption,
of the old satire, with all its magic elements, is further
strongly implied in the prescription of the ceremony for the
gldm-dichenn. This is preserved, not in the laws, though
the gldm-dichenn is frequently named there, but in one of
the Middle Irish treatises on versification,^^ which describes
the procedure against a king who refuses the proper reward
for a poem. First there was fasting on the land of the king,
and a council of thirty laymen and thirty bishops and thirty
poets as to making a satire and it was a crime to prevent the
;
satire after the reward for the poem was refused. Then
the poet himself with six others, on whom the six degrees
of poets had been conferred, had to go at sunrise to a hill-
top on the boundary of seven lands and the face of each de-
;
gree of them toward his own land, and the face of the
ollave there toward the land of the king whom he would
satirize, and the backs of them all toward a hawthorn which
should be on the top of the hill, and the wind from the north,
*^
Ancient Laws, 5. 12.
" See Revue Celtique, 16. 280 Annals of Clonraacnoise, p. 39 and Aislinge
; ;
Meic Conglinnc, ed. Kuno Meyer, pp. 44 ff. all cited by Plummer, Vitae Sanc-
;
torum Hibemiae, 1. cii.-ciii.

**
An example of satire against a tribe, which was apparently of the nature of
invective or insult rather than of incantation, is cited from the Jyeabhar Brejvc
in the Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society, 1. 179 ff. ; see also O "Don-
ovan's edition of O'Daly's Tribes of Ireland (Dublin, 1852), p. 17, n. The
Cinel Fiacha of Westmeath are asserted to be of plebeian origin. In anger at the
-'asult they murder the satirists.
63
Translated by O 'Curry, Manners and Customs, 2. 216 ff .
; Atkin.>,on, Book
of Ballymote (Facsimile), p. 13a: and Stoke.s, Re\Tie Celtique, 12. 119-120;
and summarized and discussed by Thurneysen, Millelirische ^'erslelu•en, pp. 124
ff. Thurneysen questions the antiquity of the tradition, at least as part of the
Verslehren. But the substance of the passage does not look like a late invention.
and a slingstone and a thorn of the hawthorn in every man 's

hand, and each of them to sing a stave in a prescribed metre
into the shngstone and the thorn, the ollave singing his
stave before the others, and they afterwards singing their
staves at once and each was then to put his stone and his
;
"horn at the butt of the hawthorn. And if it were they that

were in the wrong, the earth of the hill would swallow
them up. But if it were the king that was in the wrong, the
earth would swallow up him and his wife and his son and
his horse and his arms and his dress and his hound. The
curse {gldm) of the Mac fuirmed fell on the hound
^'^
;
the curse of the fochloc on the dress the curse of the doss on
;
the arms the curse of the cano on the wîfe the curse of the
; ;
cli on the son ; the curse of the anradh on the land the curse ;
of the ollave on the king himself. ^^

Whether this elaborate ceremony was actually in common
practice does not matter fundamentally to the present dis-
cussion. It may have been largely invented, or at least
embellished, by some file with a turn for magical liturgy.
Certainly the thirty bishops are suspicious participants ;
and references to the gldm dichenn in Irish literature do

not usually suggest such a complicated affair. The bishops,
however, it is to be observed, do not actually have
a part in the gldm dichenn, but only in the preliminary
council which sanctions the proceedings. There is plenty
of evidence, moreover, as will appear later, that Irish poets
did join in companies for making or pronouncing satires ;
and the characteristic features of the ceremony here de-
scribed — the fasting, the sympathetic magic, and the as-
sumed retroaction of the unjust curse —
are all unassailable
elements of popular practice or belief.
The passages cited from the Brehon laws, or used in ex-
planation of them, seem to show pretty clearly the impor-
tance of poetic malediction and satire in the life of the ancient
Irish and the impression derived from the laws is borne
;
out by frequent references in the heroic tales and historical

documents. In texts of the strict Old Irish period ^that —
^^
This and the following terras refer to the various degrees of poets.
" Stokes's translation
(in Reâle Celtique, 12. 119), somewhat condensed, is
followed in the present account.

is, those preserved in Old Irish manuscripts no actual ac- —

counts of satire have been noted by the writer, though
some of the words regularly used for it already occur in
documents of the time.^^ In view of the fact that the Old
Irish texts are chiefly glosses, the lack of such material is
not surprising. But Cormac's Glossary, which is generally
conceded, though the manuscripts of it are Middle Irish,
to be a work of the ninth or tenth century, and which is
therefore one of the earliest documents preserving any
considerable quantity of native Irish tradition, contains a
score or more of references to the custom. Several words
are there explained as having to do with the satirist or
his work. Leos is defined as "a blush wherewith a person
"
is reddened after a satire or reproach of him and one mean- ;
ing oiferb is said to be "a blotch which is put on the face of
a man after a satire or false judgment." ^^ A similar con-

ception of the physical effect of satire (which will be dis-
cussed again later) appears in the definition of rinntaid,
nomen for a man of satire, who wounds or cuts each face."
''
Both groma and glam are defined, and the latter explained
as coming ab eo quod est clamor. The etymology, like that
proposed for cainie, satirist,
—
"i.e. canis, a dog, for the
satirist has a dog's head in barking, and alike is the profes-
sion they follow" —
has no value in the eyes of modern
science, but such comments are of some incidental interest.
And this is particularly true of the etymology proposed
for file, poet, "from poison (fi) in satire and splendour
(li) in praise." The derivation is again impossible, but
in associating the word for poet with the 'poison of
satire' Cormac anticipates, on the semasiological
side, the
modern theories, already mentioned, with regard to the
®^
Germanic words 'scop' and 'scoff.'
More interesting, however, than any of these definitions ^^
are four actual pieces of old satirical verse which Cormac has
preserved among his citations. Under riss, 'story,' a line
^2
See particularly Ascoli's Glossarium Palaeohibemicum under air and its
compounds.
^ There is a similar explanation in the Amra Choluimb Chille. See p. 114, below.
" See 102, above.
p.
*^
For other references to the subject in Cormac, not mentioned above, see the
articles on aithrinne, doeduine, dul, and trefkocal.
is quoted and declared to come from the poem of Coirpre

mac Etaine against Bres mac Elathain, the first satire which
'
was made in Ireland. Under cernine, dish,' another line from
the same poem is cited but Cormac nowhere gives the rest
;
of the satire. In the saga of the Second Battle of Moytura,^^

however, the whole story is told to which allusion is made
in the passages cited. According to this account, Coirpre,
the poet of the Tuatha De Danann, once came a-guesting to
the house of Bres. "He entered a cabin narrow, black, dark,
wherein there was neither fire nor furniture nor bed. Three
small cakes, and they dry, were brought to him on a little
dish. On the morrow he arose, and he was not thankful.
As he went across the garth, he said :
Without food quickly on a dish ;
Without a cow's milk whereou a calf grows ;
Without a man 's abode under the gloom ( ?) of night *^

Without paying a company of story-tellers
— ;
let that be Bres's condition."
As a result of the verse it is said that nought save decay

was on Bres from that hour.
Under the word Munnu, interpreted as Mo Fhinnu,
a pet name, the following quatrain is quoted and said to
come from the satire of Maedoc Ferna against Munnu,
the son of Tulchan :
O little vassal of mighty God !
O son of Tulchan, O Shepherd !
She bore a troublesome cliild to a family.

The mother that bore thee, Fintan !
Other evidence concerning this satire has apparently not

been preserved in fact some very similar lines are quoted
;
in the commentary on the Martyrology of Oengus and

attributed to Columbcille.^^
®^
See Stokes's edition and translation, Rev-ue Celtique, 12. 71. The quatrain
is some manuscripts of the Amra Choluimb Chille; cf. O'Beirne
also given in
Crowe's edition, p. 26 (from the Lebor na h-Uidhre), and Stokes's edition
(from Ms. Rawl. B. 502) in Revue Celtique, 20. 158. The story is told sepa-
rately in YellowBook of Lecan, p. 137b, and also (apparently) in Trinity College
Ms. H. 3, 17. See the Catalogue of Mas. in Trinity College, Dublin, p. 352.
*^
The readings of this Une differ in the manuscripts, and the translation is un-
certain.
«8
See the notes to the Martyrology, under Oct. 21 (Stokes's edition for the
Henry Bradshaw Society, p. 22C).
Athird quatrain, which also appears, as Stokes points

out, to be of satirical character, is quoted under the word
'
rer, blackbird,'
Hard to thee ^^ the httle stripHng,

Son of the Httle blackbird !
Have thou every good thing ready before him,

O little head (that is, O head of a little goose) !
The son of the little blackbird is doubtless the poet Flann

MacLonain, whom the Four Masters call "the Virgil of the
"
race of the Scots and the person addressed
is Finnguine,
;
King of Cashel, known

'head of a little
as Cenn-gegain,
goose.' The lines contain little more than word-play on
the diminutive formations in the names, and the circum-
stances referred to are unknown.'*^
Atypical story of satire, as it was employed among the
Irish,is attached to a fourth stanza, quoted by Cormac
under the word gaire, 'shortness (of life).' The lines are
said to have been uttered by Nede, the son of Adnae, against
Caier, his uncle, the king of Connaught, and the whole epi-
sode narrated in the version of Cormac's Glossary in the
is
Yellow Book of Lecan.'^ "Caier," as the tale goes, "had

adopted Nede as his eon, because he had no son at all. The
mind of Caier 's wife clave unto Nede. She gave an apple of
silver unto Nede for his love. Nede consented not, and she
promised him half the realm after Caier, if he would go in
unto her.
'
How shall this happen
Not to us ?
'
said Nede.
'
difficult,' said woman, 'make thou a satire on him, so

the
that a blemish come upon him. Then the man with the
blemish shall be no longer king.' 'Not easy to me is this
thing the man will
; not make refusal to me. There is nothing
in the world in his possession that he will not give me.'
"^
This is Stokes 's rendering of uindsi chucat; perhaps it should rather be trans-
' '
lated here comes to thee.
"On Flann mac Lonain see O'Reilly, Irish Writers, pp. Iviii. ff. O'Currj' ;
Manners and Customs, 2. 98-104; Todd's edition of the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gal
laibh (Rolls Series), p. x. Hennessy's edition of Chronicon Scotorum (Rolls
;
Series), p. 175.
'^
See Stokes's Three Irish Glossaries, pp. xxxvi. ff. Stokes's translation,
slightly condensed by the omission of doubtful words and of glossarial passages, is
here followed. Part of Nede's satirical stanza is quoted at the end of the account
of theoldm dichenn in the metrical treatise already referred to. See pp. 108, above,
and Tburneysen, Miitelirische Vcrslehren, p. 125.
'I know,' said the woman, 'a thing that he will not give
thee, namely, the dagger that was brought him from the
lands of Alba he will not give thee ; he is forbidden to part
with it.' Nede asked Caier for the dagger. Woe is me,' '
said Caier, I am forbidden to part with it.'

'
Nede made a
glcim dichenn upon him, and three blisters came forth on his
cheeks. This is the satire :
Evil, death, short life to Caier !
Let spears of battle wound him, Caier !
Caier . . . ! Caier under earth.

Caier . . . !
Under ramparts, under stones be Caier ^^ !
Caier arose next morning early (and went) to the well.

He put his hand over his countenance. He found on his
face three blisters which the satire had caused, namely.
Stain, Blemish, and Defect, to wit, red, and green, and white.
Caier fled thence that none might see the disgrace, until
he was in Dun Cermnai with Cacher, son of Eitirscel.
Nede took the realm of Connaught after him. He was there
till the end of a year. Grievous unto him was Caier 's
torment. Nede went after him to Dun Cermnai, seated in
Caier 's chariot, and Caier 's wife and his greyhound were with
him. Fair was the chariot that went to the fort His face !
told how it was with him. 'Whose is that color.?' said

'
every one. Said Caier Twas we

: that rode on his high
seat by the seat of the charioteer.' 'That is a king's
word,' said Cacher, son of Eitirscel. (Caier was not known
No, truly, I am not,' said Caier.
'
to him up to that time.)
With that Caier fled ( ?) from them out of the house, till
he was on the flagstone behind the fort. Nede went in his
chariot into the fort. The dogs pursued Caier's track until
they found him under the flagstone behind the fort. Caier
died for shame on seeing Nede. The rock flamed at Caier's
death, and a fragment of the rock flew up under Nede's
eye, and pierced into his head." The exact manner of
Nede's punishment is differently described in a stanza en
the justice of his fate, with which the account ends :
A stone that happened to be under Caier's foot

Sprang up the height of a sail-tree,
^2
Several words in the quatrain are of uncertain meaning.
Fell — not unjust was the decree —
On the head of the poet from above.
A number of elements in this story are of interest to

the student of early institutions and beliefs the symbolical :
use, for example, of the apple of silver,"^ or the peculiar

prohibition (Irish geis, a kind of taboo) which forbade
Caier to part with his dagger,^^ or the provision that a king
with a bodily blemish must abdicate his throne. ^^ But
attention must here be called rather to what concerns the
satire itself —
to the poet's effort to find an excuse for his
attack, to his final punishment for unjust satire, in spite of
his ruse, and to the detailed account of the blemishing effect
of his maledictory verse. The pimples, blushes, or other
kinds of disfigurement produced by satire have been several
times referred to in passages previously cited. Here in the
story of Caier three blotches, red, green, and white, are
definitely mentioned, and called Stain, Blemish, and Defect.
The allegorical interpretation may be relatively late, though
such treatment of abstract qualities is by no means without
parallel in early Irish literature. But the general concep-
tion of facial disfigurement as the result of magic persecu-
tion or even as a punishment for some form of misbehavior
is very widespread. Among the Irish the affliction was
visited not only on the victim of an incantation, as in the
case of Caier, but sometimes on the poet himself,^^ if his
satire was unjust, and also on a judge who rendered an
unjust verdict.^^ Somewhat similar is the case of Bricriu,
mentioned in the Scela Conchobair maic Nessa, who had a
"
Compare the gifts of Finnabair to Ferdiad, Tain Bo Cualnge, L. W. Farraday's
translation (London, 1904), p. 100. See also Gaidoz, La Requisition d'Amour
et le Symbolisme de la Pomme (Annuaire de I'Ecole dcs Hautcs Etudes, 1902),
with reviewer's remarks in Revnie Archeologique, 1902, 1. 134 Lot, in Romania, 27.
;
5G0, n. ; Foster, on the Symbolism of Apples in Classical Antiquity, in Harvard

Studies in Classical Philology, 10. 43 £F. and Leite de Vasconcellos, in Revista
;
Lusitana, 7. 126 ff.

'*
For illustrations of the go's, from early Irish sagas, see an article by Miss
Eleanor Hull, in Folklore, 12. 40 ff .
^*
For this requirement that the king shall be free from all deformities or blemishes
see Ancient Laws, 1. 73 ; 2. 279; 3. 85. Compare also the story of Nuada of the
Silver Hand, discussed by Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 120.
^^
See Revue Celtique, 20. 422, and Liber Hymnorum, ed. Atkinson, p. 173.
" See Ancient Laws, 4. 16 also Revue
; Celtique, 24. 279.
boil rise from whenever he tried to withhold a

his forehead
secret.^^ And many what is at bottom
readers will recall,
the same idea, the Greek belief, mentioned by Bacon in
his essay 'Of Praise,' that "he that was praised to his hurt
should have a push rise upon his nose; as we say that a
^^
blister will rise upon one's tongue that tells a lie." That
there is a physiological basis for all such notions no one, in
these days of psychotherapy, will be disposed to deny,^°
Of the four satirical pieces that have been quoted from the
Glossary of Cormac, two, it is to be noted, are really incanta-
tions, and two are rather mocking than maledictory in tone.
Thus the examples of satire in an early document show the
same confusion of different types that was observed in the
references to the subject in the laws. And this close asso-
ciation of incantational verse with other forms of poetry
will frequently appear in the accounts of satirists to be
cited from Irish sagas.
In the further illustration of the subject from these sources
no attempt will be made to follow a strict chronological order
of events. Some of the saga material to be used is doubtless
older, at least in substance, than Cormac's Glossary, and
the examples taken from that work have fully established
the existence of satire, in the senses under discussion, in
the Old Irish period. The practice of it has survived
among the Gaels, as will be shown later,^^ down to the pres-
ent time. Beyond these general statements of chronology
it is not necessary to go. And there is, in fact, no reason
for insisting on the antiquity of the evidences with regard
to this custom, since nobody will contend (as is often con-
tended with regard to the much-debated elements of Celtic
and Arthurian romance) that the Irish borrowed it from
other peoples of mediaeval Europe.
It is noteworthy, as has already been remarked, that
" See Eriu, 4. 21, 32.

^^
The Greek idea was apparently rather
Cf. Theocritus, Idylls, ix. 30; xii. 24.
that the flatterer himself had the push rise upon him. For further illustration of
the Irish belief, see D. Fitzgerald in the Revue Celtique, 6. 195 (citing a South
African parallel).
««
Both Rhys (Hibbert Lectures, pp. 324 ff.)and Zimmer (Keltische Lit-
eraturen, in Kultur der Gegenwart, pp. 50-51) have discussed the physiological
side of the question. *^
See p. 127, below.
some of the
tales of destructive satire are associated with
most conspicuous poets in Irish history and saga. The
man who was perhaps most famous for the exercise of this
dangerous power was Aithirne the Importunate, who was
so representative a satirist that in the metaphorical language
of poetry sciath Aithirni, 'the shield of Aithirne,' became
a 'kenning' for satire.^^ His ruthless exactions, from which
he derived his sobriquet, are described in the saga of the
Siege of Howth,^^ where he is declared to have been "a
hard, merciless man," "a man who asked the one-eyed
for his single eye, and who used to demand the woman in
child-bed." So much was he feared tliat when, in the
course of his bardic circuit, he approached the borders of
Leinster, the people came forth to meet him and offered
him jewels and treasures not to come into their country,
so that he might not leave invectives. And any man
would give his wife to Aithirne, or the single eye out of his
head, or whatever Aithirne might desire of jewels and treas-
ures. As the result of an enforced contribution of women
and cattle, levied by him on the men of Leinster, came about
the siege of Howth and a war between Leinster and Ulster.^^
That Aithirne sometimes met his match appears from
a short story in the Book of Leinster, which describes his
defeat at the hands of another poet.*° Because of his
niggardliness, it is declared, Aithirne never ate his full meal
in a place where any one could see him. He proceeded, there-
fore, on one occasion to take with him a cooked pig and a
pot of mead, in order that he might eat his fill all alone.
And he set in order before him the pig and the pot of mead
when he beheld a man coming towards him. "Thou
wouldst do it all alone," said the stranger, whilst he took the
pig and the pot away from him. "What is thy name?"
said Aithirne. "Nothing very grand," said he:
"Sethor, ethor, othor, sele, dele, dreng, gerce.
Son of Gerluscc, sharp sharp, right right, that is my name."
See Revue Celtique, 26. 24.
82
^ Edited and translated

by Stokes, Revue Celtique, 8. 47 ff. See also O'Curry's
Manuscript Materials, pp. 266 ff.
*•
Rhys (Hibbert Lectures, p. 325) observes in Aithirne's defence that the
disparaging account of him comes from the Book of Leinster, and that the Lcinster-
men were his hereditary foes.
^*
Quoted and discussed by Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, p. 332.
Aithirne neither got the pig, nor was able to make rhyme
to the satire. It is evident that it was one come from God
to take away the pig ; for Aithirne was not stingy from that
hour forth.
The use of the ordinary Irish word for satire (aer) here,
where no personal attack or invective is involved, shows
the range of its employment. The lines of the strange
visitor are of course to be regarded as a spell, and the con-
test to which Aithirne is invited is really a contest in magic
power. In fact, many of the stories of verse-capping, with
which popular literature abounds,^^ are something more than
tests of poetical skill, and the whole literary type known
as the debate, or Streitgedicht, owes more than is commonly
recognized to the ancient practice of competition between
rival magician-poets. But that matter must be left for
investigation and discussion at another time.
To return to Aithirne, the usual result of refusing his re-
quests is seen in the saga of Aithirne and Luaine, which
belongs to the cycle of King Conchobar of Ulster.^^ After
the death of Deirdriu, it is related, Conchobar was in great
sorrow, and no joy or beauty could appease his spirit. The
chief men of Ulster urged him to search the provinces of
Erin, if perchance he might find therein the daughter of
a king or a noble, who would drive away his grief for Deir-
driu, and to this he assented. After a long search his mes-
sengers found Luaine, the daughter of Domanchenn, the one
maiden in Ireland who had upon her the ways of Deirdriu
in shape and sense and handicraft and when Conchobar
;
beheld her there was no bone in him the size of an inch that
was not filled with long-lasting love for the girl. She was
betrothed to him, and her bride-price was bound upon him.
When Aithirne the Importunate and his two sons heard of
the plighting of the maiden to Conchobar, they went to beg
boons of her. At sight of her they gave love to her, and
besought her to play the king false. On her refusal they
^ General references on the of are
subject necessary here.
verse-capping hardly
For some discussion and illustrations, see Gummere, The Beginnings of Poetry, pp.
400 ff. Early Irish instances (with parallels from other literatures) are noted by
Stokes in the translation of Cormac's Glossary (Ir. Arch. Society), p. 138; see
also Irische Texte, 4. 92 ff., 303.
8'
Edited and translated by Stokes, Revue Celtique, 24. 272 ff.
made three satires upon her, which left three blotches on

her cheeks, namely Stain and Blemish and Disgrace, which
were black and red and white. And thereupon the maiden
died of shame. When Conchobar learned of her death,
great silence fell upon him, and his grief was second only
to his grief Deirdriu.
for He took counsel with the
Ulstermen concerning the punishment of Aithirne and
his sons. Luaine's father and mother urged revenge, but
Cathbad, the Druid, gave warning that Aithirne would send
namely Satire and Disgrace and
beasts of prey against them,
Shame and Curse and Fire ( ?) and Bitter Word. In the
end they decided upon Aithirne's destruction and after the ;
funeral rites had been celebrated for Luaine, the Ulstermen

followed Aithirne to Benn Aithirni, and walled him in with
his sons and all his household, and killed Mor and Midseng,
his two daughters, and burnt his fortress upon him. But
the doing of that deed, it is said, seemed evil to the poets
of Although the magician in Aithirne so much
Ulster.
outweighs the poet, yet the bards took up his cause, and
Amairgen, the chief poet, Aithirne's fosterling and pupil,
made a lamentation upon him.
Aithirne and the kings with whom he is associated belong
distinctly to the field of saga, but similar tales are told of
poets who lived within the historical period or in relation with
historical persons. Dalian Forgail, of the sixth century,
the traditional author of the Amra Choluimb Chille, is
said to have composed both songs of praise and satirical
verses upon Aed mac Duach in an effort to obtain from him,
by fair means or foul, his famous shield, the Dubh-GhiUa.^^
And the death of Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the chief
leaders of the marauding Scots at the beginning of the
fifth century, was directly due, according to one account,^^
to strife engendered by a satirist. Echu, the son of Enna
Censelach, the tale relates, when on his way from the house
of Niall to his own people in Leinster, sought food at the
house of Laidchenn, Niall's poet. Laidchenn refused
^ See
the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe, ed. Connellan (1860), pp. 12 ff.
See the story of Niall's death, from Ms. Rawl. B. 502, edited and translated
*'
by K. Meyer, Otia Merseiana, 2. 84 S. Cf. O'Curry, Manners and Customs, 2.

70 ff.
Echu and Echu revenged himself later by de-

hospitality,
stroying the poet's house and killing his son. Thereupon
for a whole year Laidchenn kept satirizing and lampooning
and cursing the men of Leinster, so that neither grass nor
corn grew with them, nor a leaf, to the end of a year. Niall
also went to Leinster, and forced the people to give him
Echu in bonds as a hostage but Echu broke his chains, and
;
slew nine champions who came up to kill him, and rejoined

his people. A second time Niall demanded that the Lein-
stermen give up Echu, and when this was done, Laidchenn be-
gan to revile Echu and the Leinstermen, so that they melted
away before him. But Echu let fly a champion's stone,
which he had in his belt, and it hit Laidchenn in the crown
of his forehead and lodged in his skull. Echu was exiled
from Ireland, but this did not put an end to the feud, and
afterward, in Alba, Niall himself fell by an arrow from Echu's
hand. While the satires of Laidchenn are plainly of the
nature of spells, it is clear that he was regarded in Irish
tradition as a real poet, and not a mere pronouncer of charms.
Poems on the history of the kings of Leinster, ascribed to
him, though not to be taken as authentic, will be found in
the Rawlinson Manuscript B 502.^°
With the satires of Laidchenn, which blighted the whole
face of Leinster, may be compared the spells attributed to
Ferchertne, another great poet of the heroic age, before
whom, according to a passage in the Tain Bo Ciialnge
(The Cattle-Spoil of Cooley), the lakes and streams sank
when he blamed them and rose when he praised them.î
They bring to mind also the threat of Forgoll, the poet, in
the Voyage of Bran, when upon occasion of a disagree-
ment with Mongan, he declared that he would satirize
Mongan and his father and his mother and his grandfather ;
singing spells upon their waters so that no fish should be

caught in their river-mouths, and on their woods so that they
should bear no fruit, and on their plains so that they should
be barren of produce.^-
'"
See the collotj-pe facsimile, edited by Kuno Meyer, introduction, p. ix., and
text, pp. 116 ff.
'1
Tain Bo Cualnge, ed. Windisch (Irische Teste, Extraband), p. 789.
92
The Voyage of Bran, Meyer and Nutt, 1. 49.
Enough has been said to show the association of satire

and malediction with Irish poets of high station. The
frequency of the practice in the Hfe of the people is further
indicated by many passages in the sagas. In the great
central tale of the Ulster cycle, the Tain Bo Ciialnge, for
example, satirists appear in several important episodes.
The account of Ferchertne and his spells has just been re-
ferred to. Redg, another satirist, is employed against
Cuchulainn when the latter is holding at bay all the army
of Connaught. He is sent to ask Cuchulainn for his spear ;
and upon Cuchulainn's refusal he threatens to take away

his honor. Then Cuchulainn lets him have the spear in
the back of his head, and kills him.^^ Again, when Ferdiad,
the companion of Cuchulainn's youth, refuses to take part
against him, Medb sends the druids and the satirists and
the hard -attackers to him, that they may make three satires
to hold him, and three imprecations {glamma dicend),
that they may raise the three blotches on his face, Shame
and Blemish and Disgrace, so that if he does not die at once
he may die before the end of nine days, if he will not go
into the fight. And Ferdiad yields, preferring to fall before
the spears of bravery and warfare and prowess rather than
before the spears of satire and insult and abuse. ^^ On
another occasion two female satirists from the camp of
Connaught stand over Cuchulainn and weep in hypocrisy,
predicting the ruin of Ulster.^^ And again, the Morrigan
herself, the battle-goddess, appears to Cuchulainn in a simi-
lar guise. ^^ In the text of the Tain Bo Ciialnge she is not
called a satirist, but she applies the name to herself in the
Tain Bo Regamna, where she plays the same part.^^
A few more illustrations of destructive satires may be
cited from the great collection of early Irish topographical
legends which is known as the Dindsenchas.^^ In the ac-
" See the Tain BoCualnge, Windisch's edition, p. 273. And compare a simi-
lar episode in the Aided Conchulainn, Revue Celtique, 3. 78 ff.
9^
Tain Bo Cualnge, Windisch's edition, p. 441.
^^
/^j^ p §29.
9^
See the Tain Bo Cualnge, Lebor na h-Uidre version. Miss Farraday's transla-
tion (Grimm Library), p. 74.
*'
See the Irische Texte, ed. Windisch and Stokes, vol. 2, part ii. p. 258.
'*
References are made here to Stokes's edition and translation of the prose por-
tion of the Dindsenchas from the Rennes Ms., Revue Celtique, vols. 15 and 16.
count of Mullaghmast,^^ Maistiu, by whose name that of

the place is explained, is said to have refused certain demands
of Gris, the female rhymester, who so maltreated her with
blemishing satires that she died thereof before her. The
Dindsenchas of Dublin ^°° affords another instance of death
from the verse of a poetess, but in this case the poem is
described as a sea-spell. Dub, the wife of Enna, discovered
that her husband had another wife, Aide, the daughter
of Ochenn. In jealousy, then. Dub chanted a sea-spell be-
fore Ochenn's house, so that Aide was drowned with all her
family.
^*^^
In still another case, in the Dindsenchas of Fa-
faind,^''^ the result of the satirist's verses is not death but
disfigurement, as has been noted several times before.
Aige, the sister of Fafne, the poet, was transformed into a
fawn by her enemies, and then slain by the king's men.
Thereupon Fafne went to blemish the king, and raised the
customary three blotches upon him. In punishment for
this Fafne was arrested and put to death.
is apparent from a number of passages cited, and par-
It
ticularly from the description of the gldm dichenn}^^ that
satirists often plied their work in companies. A whole body
of "druids and satirists and hard-attackers" were sent by
Mebd to force Ferdiad into battle.^''* Kings had bands of
satirists in their employ,^"^ and poets are sometimes grouped
with other forces to be counted upon in war.^°^ In the tale
An edition of the metrical Dindsenchas has been begun by E. Gwynn in the Todd
Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy (vols. 7 and 8).
93 i""
Revue Celtique, 15. 334 ff. Ibid. p. 326.
1"!
A somewhat similar tale of a jealous wife is told in the Latin Vita Coemgeni
(Plummer's Vitae Sanctorum Hibemise, 1. 250 ff.). Colman, the son of Carbre,
finding his first wife incompatible, put her away and took another. But the rejected
woman was powerful in magicis artibus, and sang spells which destroyed all the chil-
dren of her successor. At last one of them (Faelan) was saved by a miracle of
St. Coemgen. The way in which different magic arts were combined in these dan-
gerous women of poetry is shown again by the tale of Dreco (Druidess and female
poet), who prepared a poisonous liquor which killed the twenty-four sons of Fergus
Redside. See the Dindsenchas of Nemthenn, Revue Celtique, 16. 34.
^°^
Revue Celtique, 15. 306 ;
and compare Gwynn's Metrical Dindsenchas,
^^ See
p. 120, above.
66 103
2. ff. See pp. 108 ff., above.
"^
Compare Revue Celtique, 22. 294.
^"^
At this point Arabic literature again furnishes interesting parallels. Cf Gold-
.
' '
ziher'sremarks on the use of the Hija' as an Element des Krieges (Abhandlungen
zur Arabischen Philologie, p. 36).
of the Second Battle of Moytura, for example, when the

leaders of all the crafts are asked in turn what help they can
give against the Fomorian enemies, the file promises, on

behalf of his fellow-poets, to make a gldm dichenn which
will satirize them and shame them and take away their
resistance.^°^ And in the Dindsenchas of Carman, hostile
enchanters appear in open opposition. ^°^ Carman and her
sons, according to the story, came from Athens, and she
ruined the land with spells and songs and incantations while
the sons destroyed by plundering and dishonesty. But
the Tuatha De Danann sent Ai of their poets and Cridenbel
of their satirists and Lugh Laebach of their druids and
Be Cuille of their witches to sing upon them, and the men
were driven out, and Carman held as a prisoner behind them.
The joint action of enchanters seems also to be referred to
in the Dindsenchas of Laigen, which says that the druids
of Ireland nearly exterminated by their songs the tribe of the
Gaileoin.^'^^
In the light of so many accounts of maledictive work of
poets it will not appear strange that Cormac thought the
' '
poison of satire to be one element in the composite of file,

' '
or that Ferchertne and Nede, in a liighly technical Colloquy
on the poets' profession, several times refer to satire among
its characteristic features."*^ Nor is it to be wondered at
that the poets as a class came to be greatly feared. In
some verses ascribed to St. Columba it is written, "Blessed
is he who praised; woe to him who is satirized !" And
is
again, "Woe
to the land that is satirized !" ^^^ And Fer-
chertne, in an interesting and typically Irish elaboration
of the familiar list of signs before judgment, predicts, among
other calamities, that "every man will buy a lampooner to
^^^
lampoon on his behalf." It was a general belief, some-
times explained by reference to the sacredness of the poet's
person, that no request of his should ever be denied,
and there was undoubtedly a strong feeling that poets were
entitled to be rewarded for their work. But the real motive
!•"
Revue Celtique, 12. 91. los
Ibid. 15. 311. "» Ibid. 15. 299.
^1°
The Colloquy of the Two Sages (Agallam in da Suaradh), edited and trans-
lated by Stokes, Re\-ue Celtique, 26. 23 ff.
"1 Revue Celtique, 20. 44. ^^ See the
Colloquy, Revue Celtique, 26. 40.
for yielding to their exactions seems often to have been the

fear of their attacks, whether in maledictive verse or in some
other form of magic persecution. And that they had other
means than the poetic of enforcing their demands is suggested
by Cormac's description of the hriamon smetrach,^^^ an op-
eration which they performed on a man who refused them
aught. They ground his ear-lobe between their fingers
until he died. The supernatural power of the poets was even
conceived as lasting beyond their own lives and it is related ;
of Cuan O'Lothchain, a famous poet who was murdered in

1024, that his murderers became putrid in a single hour.
^^^
"That," the annalist says, *'was the miracle of a poet !"
As a result of the terror they inspired, the poets commonly
got what they asked for, even from the boldest of saga
heroes. Thus Cridenbel the satirist regularly obtained on
demand the best bits of the Dagda's supper, though the
Dagda's health was the worse for it and it was only by a ;
trick that the was disposed of.^^^ So

importunate sorcerer
also Lugaid the king, when solicited by Ban-bretnach,
the woman-satirist of the Britons, complied with her de-
mand and lay with her, and became the father of Conall
Core "^ and it is related of a certain MacSweeney that,
;
when unable to remove a ring which a poet had asked for,

he hacked off finger and all rather than not grant the re-
quest. Of Leborcham, the nurse of Deirdriu, it is said
^^^
that she was a woman-satirist and no one dared refuse her

aught
^^^
;and of MacConglinne, who was great at both
eulogy and satire, that he was called Anera (the negative
was no denial of his requests. ^^^
of era, 'denial') because there
Even the Christian saints, it would appear, were not
exempted from such demands or by any means superior
to the fear of them. For when St. Columba was cutting
wood church of Doire, certain poets came to him to
for the
seek a boon. He told them he had no gift for them there,
but that if they would come home with him they should re-
"' See Cormac's
Glossary, under bri; also Revue Celtique, 26. 55.
1" See Annals of year 1024.
Ulster, ed. B. MacCarthy (Rolls Series), under the
"^ See the Second Battle of
Moytura, RevTie Celtique, 12. 65.
"^ See the Coir
Anmann, under Conall Core (Irische Texte, 3.310).
1" See the Publications of the Ossianic
Society, 3. 297.
"8 Irische 1. 71.
"^ Meic Conglinne, ed. Kuno Meyer, p. 43.
Texte, Aislinge
ceive one. They replied that if he did not give the gift then
and there they would satirize him and Columba was seized
;
with such shame at this threat that smoke rose from his
forehead and he sweated exceedingly. He put up his hand
to wipe away the sweat, and it became a talent of gold in
his palm, and he gave the talent to the poets. "Thus,"
the narrator concludes, "did God save the honor of Columb-
^^°
cille." In a story of similar purport the honor of St.
Patrick is saved by the miraculous provision of food for a
company of minstrels or jugglers ; but in this instance the
petitioners, after receiving their boon, are swallowed up by
the earth in punishment for their insolence. ^^^ Vengeance
of like character is visited on three poets who threaten to
defame Laisren ^^^ and, in general, when the satirists

St. ;
confront the saints, their sorcery is forced to succumb to

a higher power.
The community as a whole also sometimes found means,
according to the historians, of resisting the demands of the
poets, and Geoffrey Keating reports traditions of at least
three banishments of the order. ^-^ On the first occasion,
in the time of King Conchobar of Ulster, when the poets
were about to set out for Alba, they were taken under pro-
tection by Cuchulainn and retained by him for seven years.
On banishment they were retained by Fiachna
their second
mac Baedan, and on their third by Maelcobha mac Deamain,
both also kings of Ulster. A fourth attempt to expel them
from the country was made by King Aed mac Ainmiri at
the celebrated assembly of Drumceat. But St. Columba
intervened on the poets' behalf and arranged that they should
be allowed to remain, though with their numbers reduced.
His action, Keating observes, is commemorated in the stanza :
The poets were saved by this means,

Through Colum of the fair law ;
^° See O'Donnell's Life of

Columbcille, edited by R. Henebry, Zeitschrift fiir
Celtische Philologie, 4. 296-298. The same life says later {ibid. 6. 42) that Columb-
cille was weakly indulgent
in rewarding poets and rhymers.
'^'
Stokes, the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, pp. Ix., 204.
Compare
^ See De Smedt and Backer, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (1888), col. 796.
Other instances of relations between the satirists and the saints are noted by Plum-
mer, Vitse Sanctorum Hiberniae, 1. ciii.
^ See Keating's Forus Fcasa air Eirinn, Irish Text Society edition, 3. 78 ff.
A poet for each district is no heavy charge,

—
That is what Colum ordained.
The same abuses of the poets which stirred up hostile

legislation called forth much unfavorable comment in Irish
literature, and in one case they produced a counterblast
which ranks among the best pieces of humorous writing
in Middle Irish. This is the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe
(Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution), which has
been several times referred to.^^^ The account of Senchan
and the mice, already quoted from it, shows the spirit of
extravagant burlesque which pervades the whole, and which
can hardly be reproduced in a condensed summary of the
story. The chief episodes are as follows : The bards,
under Senchan, their newly elected chief, decided to make
a professional visit to Guaire, the king of Connaught,
who had never been satirized for lack of hospitality and ;
out of special consideration for him they took with them

only thrice fifty poets, thrice fifty students, thrice fifty
hounds, thrice fifty kinswomen, and thrice nine of each
class of artificers. Guaire greeted them all cordially, only
regretting that he could not give a personal welcome to each
member of the large company and they were quartered in
;
a great mansion and told to ask for whatever they might

desire. "It was, however, a great difficulty to procure all
things for them for it was requisite to give to each of them his
;
meals apart and a separate bed and they went to bed not any
;
night without wanting something, and they arose not a day

without some of them having longing desires for some things
that were extraordinary, wonderful, and rare, and difficult
of procurement. It was a task for all the men of Ireland to
find that which was longed for, and unless the person who
desired it obtained it within twenty-four hours, it was use-
less ever after to procure it for him." Muireann, the wife
of Dalian Forgail, on the very first night moaned aloud and
declared that she should die unless she could have "a bowl
of the ale of sweet milk, with the marrow of the ankle-bone
of a wild hog ; a pet cuckoo on an ivy tree between the two
Christmases; her full load on her back, with a girdle of
^ See p. 96, above.
yellow lard of an exceeding white boar about her; and to

be mounted on a steed with a brown mane, and its four
legs exceedingly white a garment of the spider's web around
;
her, and she humming a tune as she proceeded to Durkis."

Another woman of the company desired a skirt full of black-
berries in January, and also that Guaire's people might all
be stricken down with disease. For the fulfillment of
these and other equally preposterous demands Guaire
sought the aid of Marban, his brother, the holy hermit;
and by miracles of heaven the king's honor was saved, like
that of the saints in the stories previously related.
When all the desires of the company had been fulfilled,
they sat down to a great feast. Senchan, however, took
whimsical offence at the hearty eating of the servants, and
refused all food. Guaire in distress sent a favourite steward
to prepare a wild goose and serve it to Senchan with special
care. But Senchan refused it because the young man's
grandfather was thip-nailed. And when a favourite damsel
of Guaire's household was sent, Senchan would not take
food from her hands because her grandmother had once
pointed out the road to lepers. At last, after several days'
abstinence, Senchan consented to eat a hen's egg, but the
mice got at it, with results that have already been described.
When Senchan was saved by St. Kieran from the clutches
of Irusan, the great cat, he complained at his release, for he
would rather by his death have given occasion for the sati-
rizing of Guaire.
Marban, in the meantime, though a saintly hermit, had
lost all patience with the unreasonable demands of the
poets, and determined to obtain some redress. Accordingly

he made his way to their mansion, declared that he was con-
nected with poetry through the grandmother of his servant 's
wife, who was descended from poets, and claimed his choice
of music from the company. Then he demanded the per-
formance of a crondn (a low humming tune) till he should
declare that he had enough. He would not be satisfied
with the ordinary crondn, but insisted on the bass or gut-
tural crondn, in the hope that they would break their heads,
feet, and necks, and that their breathing would be the sooner
exhausted. One company of singers after another was worn
out by the performance. Efforts were made to put off

Marban with riddle contests, but he always defeated his
antagonists in questions, and then reverted to his first
demand —
"Perform as much crondn as we desire." At
last, when no one else could respond, Senchan himself had
to perform, and he made such exertions at the guttural
crondn that his eye burst out upon his cheek. Marban was
satisfied with this revenge, and restored the eye to its place.
Then he laid bonds upon the bards to obtain for him the
saga of the Cattle-Spoil of Cooley and the rest of the
;
story is taken up with their adventures in discharge of the

obligation.
In this way the Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe is brought
into connection with the old saga-cycle. But it is really a
comparatively late work,^-' and in effect, as has already been
said, a satire on the satirists. Satire in the loose or primi-
tive sense furnished material for satire in the stricter defi-
nition of the word. It would not be fair to say that the one
passed over into the other, and no such suggestion is here

intended. The Imtheacht is cited rather as a significant
piece of testimony to the extensive development of the old
satire of malediction.
It would be easy to multiply references to satire from all
branches of early Irish literature, but the passages which
have been discussed illustrate the more important aspects
of the subject. And it is beyond the compass of the pres-
ent study to trace the history of satire through Irish liter-
ature of the modern period. Suffice it to say, of this later
development, that although real satire, as opposed to in-
cantational verse, increases as time goes on, the old concep-
tion of the destructive satirist, the poet with superior power,
v/hom it is dangerous to displease, has never disappeared
^"^
among the Gaels of either Ireland or Scotland. But the
^^ The is late Middle Irish.
text In some parts old material is made use of.
Compare, example, the story of the leper, in the latter part of the Imtheacht,
for
with the similar narrative in Cormac's Glossary, under PruU.
^^ An
extended study of modern Irish satire is greatly to be desired. Interesting
illustrations both of real literary satire and of the incantational type are referred to
in O 'Donovan's introduction to O 'Daly's Satire on the Tribes of Ireland (Dublin.
1864). The Pairliament Chloinne Thomais, edited by Stern in the Zeitschrift
ftir Celtische
Philologie, 5. 541 ff., may also be mentioned as a representative sa-
rhymester of to-day, though he may,

village like Chaucer's
Somonour, have
In daunger ... at his owene gyse
The yonge girles of the diocyse,
is far less important in power or influence than the magi-

cian-poet of saga times. He represents, so far as one can
judgfe, the expiration of a tradition or custom which in
mediaeval Ireland was still vigorous and productive of re-
sults in literary development.
For the practices of the old Irish satirists have, in addition
to their merely curious interest, a wider bearing on literary
history. Attention has already been called ^^^ to their con-
nection with the development of the 'fly ting,' or verse debate,
a matter which cannot further be treated at this time. And
their obvious relation to the beginnings of ordinary satire
also deserves more consideration than it has received from
students of the subject. ^^^ One might hesitate just now,
when fashion among critics and scholars is turning against
Liedertheorien and doctrines of popular origin, to lay stress
upon such a development. The folklorists and ballad col-
lectors are charged, not unjustly, with many extrava-
gances with ill-judged enthusiasm for poor productions,
:
just because they are popular with wild speculation about

;
popular composition and with a kind of easy-going satis-

;
faction in the collection of popular parallels as if they ex-
tirical document of much interest. For the survival of destructive or incantational

satire there plenty of evidence in the editions of the modern Irish poets.
is See,
for examjjle, in addition to the references already given on rat-rhyming (p. 9G, above),
Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy (1831), 2. 358, n. ;O'Daly's Poets and Poetry of
Munster (Second Series, 1860), p. 218, n. ; Dinneen's edition of Egan ORahilly
(Pubhcation of the Irish Text Society), pp. xxxi. ff. ; Hyde's edition of Raftery,
Abhrain Ata Leagtha ar an Reachtuire (1903), pp. 15 ff. Lady Gregory, Poets
;
and Dreamers (1903), pp. 8 ff. ; and with special reference to Scotland, Zeit-
schrift fUr Celtische Philologie, 2. 28. Hyde points out that even the praise of the
poets is feared, and it is beheved that no man who has had a song made about him
p nj above.
will Uve long. i" gpg
^ This relation, which has been clearly involved in most of the preceding dis-
cussion, has doubtlessly been observed by nearly all scholars who are familiar with
Celtic literature, but due account has not been taken of it in general discussions of
satire. That it has not escaped the keen vision of Professors Kittredge and
Gummere, in their investigations of popular poetry, is apparent from a note in
Gummere's Old EngUsh Ballads (1894), p. xxxiv.
plained the mature products of art. Nevertheless, in spite

of its peccant humours, the study of folk literature has
"
yielded solid results, and the thrice-battered Grimm,"
as Mr. Gummere once called him, is not to be abjured as
a Philistine god. Popular or communal composition, in
some such reasonable sense as Mr. Gummere also has most
fully defined and illustrated, must be recognized as a signifi-
cant fact in the history of poetry. Popular material, in
various forms of mythology and tradition, has entered into
the highest products of art, and the understanding of it is
often essential to the comprehension of Chaucer or Shake-
speare or Goethe. In a word, the historian of poetry will
never again be at liberty to disregard the popular basis of
the poetry of art.
Now satire, which belongs conspicuously to the poetry of
art, doubtless owes little, in its developed phases, to such
simple products as the quatrains of Nede and Coirpre. Yet
it is unquestionably a very old poetic form, originating in
early stages of society and having definite relations with vari-

ous kinds of popular verse. On one side a source has been
found for it in the rude, rustic songs of mockery which exist
among many peoples.'-^ In another aspect its connection
with gnomic writing is well recognized and one scholar has
;
^^°
gone so discussing old Germanic poetry,
far, in as to assume
that people who possessed a gnomic literature must also have
had satire. The close association of these two types could
also be admirably illustrated from Irish literature, which
furnishes, in such collections of proverbial morality as the
ancient Instructions of Cormac, many passages of well-
^^^
developed satire. But a still more intimate and essential
relation seems to exist between satire and the kind of verse
that has been described in this paper. And it is interesting
to find that an observation by M. Brunetiere, whom nobody
'^'
Such, for example, as the Etruscan fescennina, and the Germanic Schnader-
hiipfl. Compare Gummere, Beginnings of Poetry, pp. 400 ff. Hirt, Die Indo-
;
germanen, 2. 728; and Erich Schmidt, Anfange der Literatur (Kultur der Gegen-
wart), pp. 19 ff.
1'"
Kogel, in Paul's Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, 2d ed., 2. 48.
'^1
The Instructions of King Cormac Mac Airt ( Tccosca Cormaic) have been
edited by Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture Series of the Royal Irish Academy,
vol. 15 (Dublin. 1909).
will accuse of undue partiality for popular literature, points

towards its recognition. He concludes an admirable survey of
the general history of satire with the following definition ^^^
—
:
"Opposer, en nous moquant d'eux, ou en les invectivant,

c'est affaire dc temperament, —
notre maniere de penser,
de sentir, ou de voir a ceux qui ne voient, ni ne pensent, ni
ne sentent comme nous, tel est, on I'a pu voir, le trait essen-
tiel et commun qui relie les unes aux autres toutes les formes
de la satire. Le poete Archiloque, ayant sur la fille de
Lycambe des vues que Lycambe n'approuvait point, il les
exprima d'une fagon si virulente que Lycambe, et meme
sa fille, dit la legende, s'en pendirent. Voila le fond de
toute satire." The French critic, though chiefly concerned
in his essay with the more elaborate and literary forms of
satire, yet finds its essential nature to be personal invective.
If his observation is sound, and it is certainly not unreason-
able, the old Irish satirists were in the main line of develop-
ment, though very far up the line and the evidence with
;
regard to them shows that the poetry of enchantment must

also be included in the reckoning. For in the days of the
magician-poet invective, mockery, and malediction are seen
to have been almost inseparably bound together.
1^ See La Grande Encyclopedic, under Satire.
Cambridge,
February 14, 1911.
ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL
(from the old trench)
Edward Stevens Sheldon

Harvard University
The fabliau ^
of which a nearly complete translation fol-
lows may serve to illustrate the materialistic crudity of some
mediaeval conceptions of the life to come as well as a familiarly
irreverent tone equally natural under the circumstances.^
Neither the idea that this or that class of men is excluded
from hell ^ nor the gambling for souls should be assumed to
be confined to this minstrel's production and not elsewhere
found.^ But they occur here combined in a story which is
told in a not uninteresting way, and moreover the gambling
scenes —
gambling is at first treated in this fabliau as a
vice —
offer a special interest, partly because of such light
as they throw on the old games with dice, partly because
of the very difficulties of comprehension for the modern
reader.^
The translation is intended to be a pretty close and line-
^
In Montaiglon and Raynaud's Recueil general et complet des fabliaux, 6. 65-79.
2
Cf. Bedier, Les Fabliaux, p. 317 (2d ed.).
^
For a different remark concerning minstrels in hell see Aucassin et Nicolette,
6. 25 ff. (ed. of Suchier), with the words (line 39), "et si i [into hell) vont harpeor
et jogleor," etc.
*
See W. Hertz's notes on the translation of this fabliau into German in his Spiel-
mannsbuch.
^
I have derived much help from the excellent study by Franz Semrau (Wiirfel
und Wurfelspiel im alten Frankreich, 23. Heft of the Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fiir
romanische Philologie, Halle, 1910), whose explanations of the games and the
passages concerned I have, for the most part, accepted. My notes on vv. 177, 183,
191, 202, 208, 212, 231, and probably 168, are all based on his work even where I
am inclined to disagree with him (see my note on vv. 177, 208) and I have ac-
;
cepted his changes in punctuation or assignment of speeches in vv. 181, 308, 319,
322. He has printed with notes vv. 3-8, 27, 28, 134-251, 291-330, 353-355, 370-
378; in all somewhat less than half of the whole.
131
132 ST. PETER AND THE MINSTREL
for-line translation, in approximately the tone and the metre

of the original. To do this and also to imitate the rhyme
would have been impossible for me, and I have accordingly
avoided rhyme altogether. That beside at least one rather
coarse colloquialism I have occasionally used a word or
a phrase which is not modern and colloquial may be harder
to justify but it can be pleaded in excuse that the original
;
is some six centuries old, and that a translator may be al-
lowed to let his rendering at least hint at such age now and
then. The verses are numbered
so as to correspond to those
of the original. be seen that a few lines have been
It will
omitted ; some of these can hardly have been in the fabliau
as originally composed, and the others are unimportant.®
There was a minstrel once at Sens
5 Who truly was of low estate ;
His costume was but seldom whole ;
I know not by what name he went ;
But oft he lost his all at dice ;
He often was without his fiddle,

10 Barelegged and without a coat,
So that against the chilly wind
He often had nought but a shirt.
Do not suppose I'm telling lies,
He had not often shoes to wear. . . .
22 The tavern was his chief resort.

The brothel next he visited ;
Those places tempted him the most. . . .
27 He loved dice and the tavern much,

And all his earnings there he spent. . . .
31 With a green chaplet on his head

He would each day were holiday ;
He greatly longed for Sunday's coming.

He ne'er liked noisy quarrelling,
35 In foolish living still kept on.
Now you shall hear what happed to him.
In foolish sins he spent his time ;
When he had lived out all his life

He had to die and pass beyond.
40 A devil, who can never cease
From tricking and attacking men,
Came to the corpse to get the soul.
'
An earlier English translation is in Bruce- Whyte's Histoire des langues romanes
(1841), 3. 122 ff. It is very free and contains in all only 167 lines, omitting much
of the original.
EDWARD STEVENS SHELDON 133
A month he had been outside hell

And not one soul as yet had caught.
45 So when he saw this minstrel die
He ran at once to seize the soul ;
And since the minstrel died in sin

No opposition there he found.
Forthwith he took him on his back,
50 And ran with speed towards hell again.
His comrades roaming through the land
Had captured many a human soul ;
The one brings with him warriors' souls.

Another priests, still others thieves,
55 And monks, and abbots, bishops too,
And knights, and many sorts of men.
Who all had been in mortal sin,
And so were taken at the end.
These devils now return to hell
60 And meet their master Lucifer.
When he sees them thus laden come,
"My faith," says he, "I welcome you.
You've not been idling all this time.
These souls shall surely ill lodge here."
65 And in the cauldron they were put.
"But, says he, "it seems to me.
sirs,"
By all that I thus far have seen.
You have not all come back again."
"Yes, Sire, we have, save one alone,
70 A wretched one, a luckless devil.
Who has no skill to capture souls,
And knows not how men to deceive."
Just then they see this devil coming
And bringing leisurely enough
75 Upon his back the minstrel man.
Who was indeed in evil case.
All naked he has entered hell ;
And he has thrown the minstrel down.

The master spoke, addressed him thus :
80 "Vassal," he said, "attend to me;
Were you a rogue, traitor, or thief.''"
"Not so," says he, "a minstrel I.
With me I bring the havings all
My body used to own on earth.
85 My body suffered many a chill.
And many a hard word had to bear;
Now I am lodged in here in hell.
And I will sing, if that's your wish."
"With singing we have nought to do,
. 90 You must live here in other wise ;
But since I see you are so bare

And are so very poorly clad,
Under the cauldron keep the fire."
"By St. Peter, with all my heart,
95 For keeping warm is good for me."
Then down he sat beside the hearth.
And tends the fire quite at his ease,
And warms up just as suits him best.
One day it chanced the imps of hell
100 Had gathered all together there ;
They sallied out from hell to catch

The souls of men o'er all the earth.
Their master came this minstrel near.
Who kept the fire both night and day :
105 "Minstrel," says he, "now list to me.

I trust to you my people all ;
Guard well these souls, or lose your eyes.

For I should put your eyes both out
Were you to lose but one of them ;
110 And I should hang you by the neck."

"My lord," said he, "fear not to go;
I'll guard them all most loyally.
The best I possibly can do.
All your souls I'll return to you."
115 "On that I trust them all to you ;
But know this well, be sure of it,
If you should lose a single one
You'd surely be devoured alive.
But know this too, I do not lie,
120 When we come back, our work all done,
I'll see that you shall well be served
With some fat monk done to a turn

With gravy made of usurer.
Or maybe with whoremonger sauce."
V25 So forth they go he stays behind
;
And in good earnest stirs the fire.

Now I will tell how then he fared.
This minstrel thus confined in hell,
And how St. Peter managed things.
130 Straight into hell the saint came in,
And well indeed was he attired.

His beard was black, moustaches curled.
He all alone came into hell,
And brought a dice board and three dice ;
135 Beside the minstrel sat him down

Most quietly and spoke to him :
"My friend," quoth he. "wish you to play ?
See what a board for gambling on !

And I've three dice of full size all.

140 You may well win in play with me
Good silver coins here privately."
And then he lets him plainly see
The purse in which the silver lies.
'But, sir," the minstrel answers him,
"
145 swear by God, without deceit,
I
I've nought i' th' world except my shirt.
Sir, in God's name, go you away,

I say I have of money nought."
Replied the saint, "My fair sweet friend,
150 Put up of these souls five or six."
The minstrel said, "I should not dare.
For if I lost a single one
My master would me much maltreat.
And he would eat me up alive."
"
155 The answer came, Who is to tell ?
A score of souls will ne'er be missed.

See here the silver that's so fine :
These pretty pieces from me win.

All newly minted too, you see.
160 Now, twentj' shillings, that's my stake:
Put up the worth of that in souls."
And when he saw so many coins
He coveted the silver much.
The dice he took, he handled them,
165 And to the saint he said straightway :
"Now us play, and be my risk

let
One soul each time and only one."
"
"Oh, two," said he, that's cowardly,'
And whoso wins shall add one more,
"
170 I care not which, blonde or brunette !
The minstrel said, "We

are agreed."
And said St. Peter, "You begin."
"But first, before the throw, the devil !
Put down the money on the board."

175 "With all my heart, i' th' name of God."
Then he lays silver down for play.
They sat them down to tremerel,^
"
Thatis, the proposal of one only is cowardly.
^
In this game apparently one player throws each time for both, the one to throw
being, each time after the first, the player who won last. Each time the first throw
is for the other player, and the second one is for the thrower himself. According
to vv. 168-169, Peter, winning, gets two souls and one more, making three. This
win of three is the next stake, but the winner from now on gets twice the stake
plus a fixed number, in this case three, each time and this number is (by chance
;
only?) the same as the first win of three. Cf. vv. 188, 197-198, 214, and my
notes there. This practically amounts to doubling the stakes (the previous win-
The saint and he, close by the fire,

"Throw you for both," St. Peter said,
"
180 For you have very skilful hands."
The minstrel throws, as I believe.
"My word," the saint said, "I have eight.
If now you next should throw hasart
'
Three souls shall I get on my side."

185 The other throws trey, deuce, and ace.
And said St. Peter, "You have lost."
"Indeed I have, by St. Denis !
Let three put down now count for six." ^^
Andsaid St. Peter, "I consent."

190 Then he at once has thrown and got
Twelve points at this try with the dice ;
"
"You owe me nine, now I'm in luck."
"'Tis true," said he, "I've lost again.
If I risk more will jôu accept ?"
195 "Yes," said the saint, "upon my word."
"These nine then first that I owe you
And count twelve more whoever wins." ^^
"Accursed he that should refuse." ^^
nings) each time and adding three, which is the way Semrau describes it, but the
technical difference between his account and that here given (based on the original)
may possibly help in explaining v. 214 and v. 296 (this last verse he finds unclear),
though the game in those two places is not tremerel; cf. my notes on both verses
and that on v. 208, also v. 218. Compare double or quits in English.
Thus Peter wins three the first time the second time the stake is accordingly
;
three, and Peter wins six (twice three) plus three more, or nine in all the next ;
time he wins eighteen (twice nine) plus three, or twenty-one in all.

This way of counting implies that the previous winnings are ignored, except as
fixing the stake, the successive winnings not being added together (three plus nine
plus twenty-one would make thirty-three), but the grand total being given after
each time. One might assume a third way and say that the immediately preced-
ing winnings are each time added, and that accordingly Peter wins the second
time the stake of three, plus his previous win of three, plus the fixed number
three, and that he wins the third time the stake of nine, plus his pre\aous total
of nine, plus the fixed number three. But this does not serve to explain so well
V. 296 (where the winnings are to be three times the stake) see my note there ;
and that on v. 214.

^
In this game a certain bad or losing throw, of an unknown number of points.
1°
That is, the stake is three, but the winner will get twice that number, or six.
The word avant ("put dowm" in the translation), whether in the sense of 'forward,'
'put forward' (as the stake), or in the temporal sense 'first,' 'beforehand,' refers to
the stake; cf. vv. 196, 214.
" This counts for the saint. The throw
counting for the minstrel is not men-
tioned ; it was of course less.
" More literally: "let it for twelve [more] for whoever wins."
count (vaille)
Cf. V. 218. The "twelve more" nine plus three in the original: Qu'il le fera
is
valoir quarante (the stake is twenty).

" The
rhyme qui I'ait is suspicious, repeating exactly the end of the preceding
Said then the minstrel, "Your throw now."

200 "With pleasure," says he, "look at that !
I see hasart, it seems to me '* :
You owe me three plus ten plus eight." ^^
"See here," said he, "now, by God's head.

That ne'er occurred at play before.
205 Now, by the faith you owe to me.
Are you not using here four dice ?
Or else your dice are numbered wrong.
I want to play now for most points." ^^
"Friend, in the Holy Spirit's name,
210 I'll gladly meet your every wish :
Now be it then just as you choose.

Shall it be once each time or twice }" ^^
"Once be it," says the minstrel. "Now,
Here twenty, winner twenty more !" ^*
215 And said St. Peter, "Help me God !"
And then he threw without dispute
verse. I am inclined to read lait in one word instead of I'ait in v. 198; i.e., 'leaves
undone,' 'fails to do' (the thing in question). This gives a suitable sense. Pos-
sibly the preceding qui stands for quil {= qui le), the / being lost before the
following /.
" The last clause should
perhaps go with what follows rather than with the pre-
ceding part of this line.
1^
This hasart (v. 201) counts for the minstrel, and he loses of course. St.
Peter's throw is not mentioned.
1®
A game the winner each time is he who gets the highest number
different ;
of points. In the game as seen in this fabliau each player throws for himself, and
the stakes, or more exactly the winnings, seem to be doubled as before (this seems
not to be Semrau's opinion), and as before the winner gets an additional three. Cf.
w. 214 (and note), 218, 226. The peculiar throw called hasart in tremerel does not
appear.
" That is, "shall each of us have one throw whenever his turn comes, or two
throws in immediate succession.''"'
1^
Why twenty is not clear. We
should expect twenty-one (v. 202). Below
(v. 226) the saint claims forty-three as his winnings. I explain this as twice twenty
plus three. The number forty-three seems to take no account of the twenty-one
previously won at tremerel; it may be simply the amount won this time, or the pre-
vious winnings may be ignored as in tremerel (see note on v. 177.) The new stake,
mdeed, was perhaps not necessarily the same as the total winnings just before;
all that was
necessary was probably that it should be such that if the loser up to
this time should now win he would at least be out of debt. Now a stake of twenty,
bringing the winner a total of forty-three, would, if the minstrel wins, cancel his debt
of twenty-one and give him a claim to a
money equivalent of twenty-two souls.
Cf. V. 208 (note) and x\. 218, 226, also 296, 319, and notes there. Semrau's sug-
gestion that twenty is taken instead of twenty-one, as being a roimd number, seems
improbable.
The original has in this line Ces .xx avant et .xx. apres. As I take avant here
:
to refer to the stake (see note on v. 188), so I take

apres to refer to what follows
the throw; that is, the winnings. As to
coimting "twenty more," cf. n. on v. 197.
Points seventeen, and now he boasts

This shall count him for forty souls.
The minstrel answered, "That's ajl right.
220 Now after you I come in turn."
And then he throws upon the board.
"That throw is worth less than a herring,"
St. Peter said, "you've lost again.
For I see fives on your three dice.
225 To-day I'm not in great distress,
You owe me now two score and three." ^'
"Indeed," says t'other, "by God's heart,"

I ne'er saw such a game before ;
By the saints that are in Rome

all
230 I'd not trust you nor any man

That said you hadn't placed the dice."^^
"Why don't you throw ? have you gone mad ?"
"I think you were an arrant thief.
Since you are still so much a cheat
235 That you can't restrain yourself
still
From changing dice or placing them."

St. Peter heard, was wroth at that.
In anger he gan say to him :
"You lie in that, so save me God ;
240 But that's the usage of a rogue,

When others do not as he likes.
He tells them that they change the dice ;
A curse on him charged me with that,

And on whoever placed the dice.
245 A very foolish rascal you.
Since you took me to be a thief ;
I'm much inclined, by St. Marcel,

To wipe your ugly mug for you."
"For sure," says he, with rage on fire,
250 "A thief you are, you old man, you.
Wishing to spoil my game for me.
You shall not carry off a penny."
"Oh, no for you'll seize all yourself.^
!
" See note on v. 208.

'
^^ '
original is par le cuer bieu, literally, by the heart of God (bieu is a dis-
The
guised form for Dieu). It is perhaps worth notice that in Chaucer's Pardoner s
Tale the passage against hasardrye leads up to verses against idle swearing which
contain theline, "By goddes precious herte, and by his nayles" (v. 323), as a dicer's
oath. have preferred to use a corresponding form in modern English rather than
I
adopt one of the many disguised oaths of similar origin in English (cf. the Oxford
English Dictionary, s. v. God, 13, 14).
'^
That is, set them down carefully so as not to let them roll.
^ These two lines (253-254) I assign to St. Peter; in the printed text used they
are taken as part of the minstrel's speech. "If you can" is an addition of mine.
Come on and take them, if you can."

255 Up springs t' other the spoil to snatch.
St. Peter, without more ado,
Gives him a blow below the ribs.
And he at that lets fall the coins ;
And he was much enraged at heart.

260 The saint he seizes by the beard.
And pulls at it with all his might.
St. Peter too took hold and tore
His clothing all, down to the waist.
Never the minstrel felt such rage
265 As now, to see his naked flesh
Exposed as far as to his belt.
Much have they scratched each other then.
And beaten, pounded, hauled about.
Full well the minstrel sees at last
270 That his strength here avails him nought.
For he is not so strong nor big
As is the saint, nor powerful ;
And he keeps on with the fray

if
His clothes will all be so in rags

275 They never will serve him again.
"
"Now, sir," said he, let us make peace.
We've tried each other's strength enough ;
Now let us play again like friends.

If it suits you and pleases you."
280 St. Peter said, "It grieves me much
That you blamed me about my play.
And that you me a thief did call."
"Sir," answered he, "I spoke as mad.
And I regret it, do not doubt.
285 But you have done still worse to me.
For you have torn my clothing so
That I shall suffer much distress ;
Now call it quits, and so will I."

And said St. Peter, "I agree."
290 At that they kissed in all good faith.
"Friend," said St. Peter, "list to me.
Souls forty-three to me you owe." ^
'Tis true," says he, "by St. Germain,
Too early ^ I began the play.
295 Now let's resume, if it please you,
^ He seems to be
referring only to his winnings in the second game (v. 226), not
counting twenty-one won at tremerel; cf. notes on vv. 177, 214.
^ The sense is
apparently I began playing too early in the day, before I had
:
full possession of all my faculties, or before I was fully awake. Semrau translates
the phrase {trop main) by "mit zu wenig Erfolg," without further explanation.
Hertz has "zu mager."
And be the count threefold or quits. . . ."

^°
"In God's name," says the saint, "agreed;

But, my
dear friend, just hst a bit :
300 Will you pay me without dispute ?"

"Yes," answered he, "with all my heart.
Entirely at your wish I will,
In knights, or ladies, canons too,
Or thieves, or fighting men, or monks ;
305 If freemen you prefer or churls,
Or priests, or chaplains, as you will."
"Friend," said the saint, "you're talking sense."
"Now make your throw and do not cheat."
St. Peter threw and got this time
310 A five, a four, and just one trey.
The minstrel said, "That's twelve I see."
"Oh dear !" St. Peter said, "oh dear !
If Jesus takes not pity on me.

This last throw brings me nought but shame."
315 The other throws with eagerness.
It's fives and deuce, and nothing more.
"My God," the saint said, "good result

Will yet come for me from this tie.
Now twenty-two, win I or lose !"
^^
320 The minstrel said, "So let it be.

Then throw ; the risk is twenty -two."
"I throw now, in St. Julian's name."
St. Peter throws without delay
Two and a single ace.
sixes
325 The saint said, "I have thrown in luck,
For I beat you by just one point."
"
See how he's almost done for me.
Beating me by a single point !
I never yet was fortunate
^^
Asit seems, a new start is made with no stake mentioned at first later, after ;
the tie,twenty-two seems to be the stake (v. 319) the last win of forty-three is
;
admitted, but the game starts afresh wnthout regard to that number. It may be
observed that when the change was made before, the number seemed wrong (see
v. 214 and note there). Here, if the stake is twenty-two, we should expect the
winner to get sixty-six (three times twenty-two, instead of the former arrangement
by which the winnings would amount to twice the stake) plus three as before, or in
all sixty-nine. But no number at all is mentioned below. As at v. 214 the stake
proposed, with a total of sixty-nine this time for the winner, would, if the minstrel
wins, clear his debt of forty-three (plus perhaps twenty-one lost at tremerelf), or
in all at most sixty-four, and give him a claim on some of the money.
-^
Let the stake be twenty-two souls, hit or miss {i.e., whether he wins or loses).
He will win, it seems, if he throws more than the number (twelve) at which the
two players were just tied. The other player has no throw, as Peter gets thirteen
and so wins.
330 But always was a luckless man,

A wretched man, a hapless man.
Both here and in the world alway."
Now when the souls that were in fire
Heard this and clearly imderstood
335 That St. Peter had won indeed,
From all sides they called out to him :
"Sire, for God's sake the glorious.

We fully trust ourselves to you."
And "I accept.
said St. Peter,
340 I trust do you trust me.
you all ;
From torment here you all to save

I risked at play money allmy
But if I had lost everything
You would have had no chance at all.
345 If it pleaseGod, before this night

You all shall be companions mine."
At that the minstrel was struck dumb,
And then he spoke "One thing or t'other
: !
I'll either square my debt in full

350 Or else I'll lose my all for good.
The souls each one and my shirt too."
I will not tire you with details :
The saint kept up the game so long

And held the minstrel so at play
355 That he at last won all the souls.
From hell he led them out in throngs.
And led them up to Paradise.
The minstrel stayed behind abashed.
In grief of mind, in anger too.
360 Lo, now the devils have come back :
When their chief was once more at home

He looked about and all around,
But saw no soul in front, behind.
In furnace none, in cauldron none.
365 The minstrel then he summoned forth :
"Speak up," he said, "where have they gone.

The souls that I left in your charge ?"
"My lord," quoth he, "I'll tell it you.
For God's sake, mercy have on me !
370 An old man came but now to me,

And brought in money, past all count.
I thought indeed to get it all,
And he and I for it we played.

But itturned out amiss for me,
375 He must have played with loaded dice.
The trickster, the deceitful man.
I had no luck, upon my word,
And I have
lost your people all."
Now when the chief heard him speak thus
380 He all but hurled him in to burn :
"You whoreson rogue," quoth he, "you wretch.

Your minstrelsy costs me too dear.
A curse on him that brought you in !
By my head, he shall pay for this !"

385 They made straight for that luckless imp
Who'd brought the minstrel's soul within. . . .
393 So well they beat and hustled him

That he at last gave them his word
395 Never again at any time
To bring a minstrel into hell.
Their chief spoke to the minstrel then :
"Fair friend, be off from my abode !
A curse light on your minstrelsy,

400 Since I have lost my houseful by 't.
Be from here, I tell you, go

off !
I have no care for such a servant.

I ne'er will seek a minstrel's soul.
Nor will I lodge one of that breed.
405 none of them, go they their way,
I'll
Let God have them, for he loves joy !
Be off to God, they're not for me."

And he makes off fast as he can ;
The devils drive him out of hell.

410 Towards Paradise he took his way.
And when St. Peter saw him come
He ran to ope for him the gate ;
Fine lodgings he allotted him.

Now let the minstrels all make merry,
415 Be gay and joyous as they please.
For torment is not for them.
hell's
There's one has saved them from that fate
Gambling away the souls at dice.
THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL
Morris Jastrow, Jr.
University of Pennsylvania
The search for the soul has always been one of the favorite
pursuits of man's speculative instincts from the remote
period of primitive culture down to our own which,
although so predominatingly scientific, has not
— age,
fortunately
perhaps
—
succeeded in brushing away all the cobwebs of
popular fancy. Hence it can happen that, in our own days,
experiments should be undertaken in a serious spirit to weigh
the human soul, —
attempts which rest essentially on the
same crudely materialistic conceptions that led simple folk
and even philosophers in antiquity to locate the soul some-
where in the human body.
The philosophy of mankind is necessarily materi-
earliest
alistic. In man's first endeavors to find a solution for the
two most striking mysteries of which he is conscious, the
world of phenomena about him and the fact of his own ex-
istence, it is natural that he should, on the one hand, trace
the origin of the world to some single substance as the
starting-point of the evolution of matter, and that on the
other, he should be led to localize in himself an element that
would appear to him to constitute the essence of his own
life. One might have supposed the blood to be the sub-
stance that would most naturally suggest itself as the
source of life and as a matter of fact, among many na-
;
tions, both primitive and advanced, we find blood closely

associated with life. This is the view that underlies the
Biblical tale of Cain and Abel. The actual shedding of
Abel's blood is dwelt upon as the cause of his death, and
hence the ordinary expression for murder in Hebrew is the
143
144 THE LIVER AS THE SEAT OF THE SOUL
'
pouring out of blood.' Similarly the word for blood is used

synonymously with the term for 'life' or 'soul.' Yet, al-
though the sight of blood flowing from an inflicted wound
would suggest in the case of both man and animals that
life is to be found in the blood, inasmuch as death ordinarily
ensues without violence and without any actual loss of

blood, the conclusion would be drawn that there is some-
thing else besides the blood which conditions life.
Early thought does not distinguish sharply between con-
ceptions that in a more scientific age would be kept apart,
and we must pass down to the period of Greek philosophy
before we encounter a differentiation between soul and life.
To the primitive mind, and even in popular parlance among
the advanced nations of antiquity, soul and life, even when
two separate terms exist, are used interchangeably. The
problem of life, therefore, as it presented itself to antiquity,
was to seek for some locality in the body which might be
regarded as the ultimate source of life, and hence as the seat
of the soul.
Scholars have hitherto recognized that the heart was
widely regarded in antiquity as the seat of life. This was
the view currently held in ancient India. In Sanskrit litera-
ture the heart is the seat of thought, and since thought is the
most significant and most direct manifestation of the soul,
the heart is identified with the soul, and, as such, becomes
also the source of all emotions and the general symbol of
"
vitality. In the Atharva-Veda we read of the fluttering
mind that has found place in the heart." ^
Agni is pictured
as confounding the evil intent of adversaries "that which —
is in their heart
" —
and he is called upon to consume them
in their hearts with pangs.^ Not only is all 'thought' and
'design' placed in the heart,^ but in the philosophy of India
the spirit of man is actually described as dwelling in the
heart and pictured as about the size of a thumb, or in an-
other passage as smaller than a seed of corn or rice, and
yet, despite its smallness, endowed with infinity of being,
and identified with the all-embracing universal soul. Even
a particular spot in the heart is assigned as the seat of the
1
\Vhitney-Lanman, Atharva-Veda, 1. 294 (vi. 18. 3).
2 »
Ibid., 1. 86 (iii. 2. 3-5). /îV/., 2. 651-653 (xi. 9. 1 and 13).
MORRIS JASTROW, JR. 145
soul,and in sleep the soul is supposed to transfer its seat to

the heart bag.
Among the Greeks and Romans we find practically the
same view both popular beliefs and among the early phi-
in
losophers, as well as among the physicians down to a certain

period. In Homer, all the intellectual and emotional fac-
ulties, including love and courage, are placed in the heart,
which thus becomes equivalent to being the seat of soul-
activity.^ And despite the fact that under the influence
of anatomical knowledge, which established the important
function of the brain —
even before the days of Plato, it
would seem —
the view arose which gave to the head the
distinction of containing the soul, in popular usage as well
as in some scientific circles the older notion survived. Anac-
reon ^ advised perfuming the breast, beneath which is the
heart, in the belief that the perfume would bring calm to
one's spirit and Athenseus, who reports this of Anacreon,
;
expressly adds that this was done, because according to

Praxagoras and Philotimus —
both physicians the soul —
was located in the heart.
The more advanced view, which placed the soul in the
brain, is attributed to Pythagoras and Democritus, but finds
a more definite expression in Hippocrates (ca. 460-377 B.C.),
who not only distinguishes between the intellectual and
the emotional faculties, but within the latter recognizes two
divisions the higher emotions, like courage, and the lower,
:
among which are the passions and appetites. The higher

are located in the heart, the lower in the region of the liver.
Practically the same view is taken by Plato, although, as
we shall see,^ he also attempts a compromise between older
and later views; but the greatest of Greek philosophers,.
Aristotle, still clings to the view that the seat of the intel-
lectual functions is in the heart. While differentiating be-
tween soul and intellect, he makes the nous a part of the
psyche J
*
Seymour, Homeric Age, p. 489.
5
Athenseus, Deipnosophiste, Book xv, § 36. ^
ggg below, p. 166.
^
De Anima, iii. Aristotle specifies that the voOi, 'spirit,' is that wherewith
4.
the soul (i^vxv) thinks and grasps. See Jastrow, Aspects of Religious Belief and
Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 15-3, note 1.
The argument of Aristotle in favor of the heart as the

seat of the soul is curious, coming from one who is usually
swayed by purely scientific considerations, but also interest-
ing as illustrative of the tenacious hold of traditional con-
ceptions even on men of science. Aristotle argues that the
soul must be located in the noblest organ of the body, and
that is the heart. The highest expression of man's being
must come from the noblest part.
The Stoics may also be cited as examples among Greek
philosophers who clung to the older view. Plutarch has an
^
interesting passage which shows that the change from heart
to brain was only gradually brought about, and that after
considerable discussion as to a number of places in the head
where the intellect was supposed to be located. While
Plato and Democritus placed it in the head in general, Strato,
he says, fixed the seat of the intellect between the eyebrows,
Erasistratos underneath the scalp, Herophilos at the bottom
of the head. Parmenides and Epicurus were among those
who clung to the view which placed the intellect and —
the soul —
in the breast, the Stoics placed it in the heart,
while Diogenes specified the ventricles of the heart, and
Empedocles the blood of the heart
—
an interesting com-
promise between blood and heart as coextensive with life.
Others, he adds, placed the soul in the arteries of the heart,
some in the pericardium, and again others in the diaphragm,
— a compromise between liver and heart. The eclectic
disposition reaches its limit in the views of those who, like
Pythagoras, made the soul extend from the head to the
heart or even to the diaphragm.^ Among the arguments
used by the Stoics in support of their preference for the
heart as against the head, Galen (ca. 130-200 a.d.) furnishes
the one offered by Zeno, which is curious enough to be
added. ^° Zeno reasoned as follows The voice comes:
through the throat. If it came from the head, it would not

pass through the throat ; whence the voice comes must also
^
De Placitis Philosophorum, iv. 5.
^
In judging of these strange and erratic opinions, it is well to bear in mind that
as late as the Middle Ages the belief was quite general, even among physiologists,
that the soul was located in a particular spot at the base of the brain.
" (Euvres de Galen, 2. 244 f. (edited
by Daremberg).
be the seat of the intellect. Hence the head cannot be the

seat of the intellect.
In Hebrew, likewise, the heart is the seat of the intellect,
and although the literary language differentiates between
intellectual and emotional processes —
the emotions being
placed beneath the diaphragm in the bowels or kidneys —
there are numerous passages in the Old Testament, especially
in poetry (see below, p. 148), which prove the persistence of
the older conception that concentrated within the heart all
the intellectual and emotional functions associated with
the manifestation of man's soul-activity.
In illustration of Latin usage, we find Persius (Satires,
'
vi. 2) employing the phrase 'cor jubet hoc Enni as the equiv-
alent to Ennius hoc jubet ;^^ and as further evidence for the
strength which this older view maintained even among men
of science down to a late day, it is sufficient to quote the ut-
"
terance of Paracelsus, Caeterum non corpus homo est sed
cor est homo," ^2 or the saying of a late Spanish chronicler
that "The root of man is his heart." Vauvenargues reflects
"
the same view when be declares, Les grandes pen sees
viennent du coeur," and we speak of 'learning by heart' and
^^
'knowing something by heart,' just as our word 'record'
takes us back to the age which believed that know^ledge was
deposited in the heart. In sacrificial rites among various
nations the heart of the victim is accorded special honors as
the seat of life, and in further illustration of this distinction
accorded to the heart, we have the large number of instances,
from the days of Robert d'Arbrissel (died 1117) down to our
own days, of special burials for the hearts of rulers, saints, and
warriors.^^
" Ennius, who

spoke three languages, Greek, Oscan, and Latin, significantly
says of himself that he has 'three hearts' (Gellius, Noctes, Book xvii. 17),
— an-
other indication of the identification of the heart with the seat of intellect.
^''
Interpretatio alia totius Astronomise (Paracelsi Opera, 2. 670, Geneva, 1658).
^
Compare the French 'apprendre par coeur,' 'je sais par coeiu".'
" See the
long list of illustrations in Andry, Recherches sur le Coeur et le Foie
(Paris, 1856), pp. 106-122. It was customary also for the hearts of the rulers of
Bavaria to be taken out of the bodies and to be buried in the church at Ettal,
even when the bodies were placed elsewhere.
II
There is, however, considerable evidence at our disposal

to show that in a still earlier age than the one which selected
the heart as the seat of the soul, there was another organ to
which this distinction was accorded, namely, the liver.
In Greek poetry, it has been observed,^'' the word rjirap
is introduced where in prose the word for 'heart' would
be used. When the poet wishes to say of one that he is

mortally wounded, he does not say that 'he is struck in
the heart' but that he is 'hit in the liver.' ^^ Megarus,
disconsolate over the death of his children, prays that he too
may die through a poisoned arrow in his liver.
^^
The late
Professor Lamberton informed me that he did not recall
a single instance in Greek poetry in which the word 'heart'
was employed as indicative of the seat of vitality. Such a
circumstance points unmistakably to a time when the liver
was regarded as the seat of life, or, what in popular fancy
amounts to the same thing, as the seat of the soul. Poetic
speech, by virtue of the general archaic character of poetry,
retains the earlier view. Bion ^^ makes Venus express the
hope at the sight of the slain Adonis that the last breath of
her son may pass into her liver, i.e. into her soul, and so
Hecuba, vowing vengeance for her husband's death, declares
that she will not rest until she has devoured 'the liver' of
Achilles.19
The myth of Prometheus chained to a rock, as the punish-
ment sent by the gods, with a vulture eating his liver, rests
on the same belief, the liver being selected as the seat of
vitality. Incidentally, this touch reveals the antiquity of
the myth, and the same applies to the story of Tityus, the
son of Jupiter, who, for having violated Latone, is punished
by having a serpent (or vultures) pick at his liver.^'^
In Hebrew likewise there are traces of this earlier view.
While, as we have seen, the word for 'heart' (leb) is used
as a synonym of nephesh, 'soul,' there are two passages in
^^
See Stephanus, Thesaurus Linguae Grsecae ; or Passow, Griechisches Worter-
buch, under fjirap Blecher, De Extispicio, p. 58. Ode 3.
^^
;
Cf. Anaereon,
1'
Moschus, Idyll iv. 30. '^
Bion, Idyll 1. 47.
" Iliad, xxiv. Hi.
2" vultures.
Hyginus, Fabulae, Iv.; according to Homer, Iliad, xi. 578, by
the Old Testament in which the word for 'liver' (kabed)

occurs instead. In Lamentations ii. 11 the poet says :
Poured out on the earth is my Hver, over the destruction of my people,

where the expression of the being poured out is synony-
liver
mous with the more common one of the blood or the soul
being poured out.^^ Since the gall belongs to the liver, the
"
phrase in Job xvi. 13 of the gall poured on the ground,"
is synonymous with the usage in Lamentations.
Again, in Proverbs vii. 23, in a description of how one who

falls into the meshes of the lewd woman is lured on to de-
struction, we read :
Until the arrow pierces his liver, as the bird rushes to the trap, not
knowing that it means his life (nephesh).
Here there is a direct juxtaposition of 'liver' and 'life' (or

soul), the two terms being used synonymously, as elsewhere
'heart' and 'life.' In the Psalms likewise there are a num-
ber of passages in which by the consensus of scholars we
must read kabed, 'liver,' instead of kabod, 'honor,' as the
text has it. So e.g. Ps. vii. 6 :
Let him tread down my life to the earth, and drag my liver to the dust.
Here again we have the juxtaposition of 'life' and 'liver.'

So also in Ps. xxx. 13 the correct reading is
That my liver may sing praise unto thee and not be silent,
synonymous with the frequent phrase 'let my heart be glad,'

or 'let my soul rejoice.'
It is interesting to note also that there are some passages
in which the earlier and later views are combined by the in-
troduction of both organs, heart and liver, that together sum
up what we should call soul. In Ps. xvi. 9 the Psalmist says :
Therefore my heart is glad, and my liver exulteth.
In Ps. cviii. 2 :
My heart is steadfast, O God ! I will chant and I will sing — aye, my

liver (shall sing).
^^
In Malay, similarly, blood and liver are used as synonymous (Fasciculi Ma-
layenses. Part i.
p. 178).
Here the phrase 'aye, my liver' is equivalent to 'aye, my

soul.'
2^
The
use of the liver or of the gall in ancient medi-
cine reverts to the same conceptions held of the liver as
the seat of vitality. From the Talmud ^^ we learn that the
liver of the dog was a remedy against hydrophobia. Tobit
restores the sight of his father by rubbing his eyes with the
gall of a fish.
2^
Both remedies are clearly based on the sup-
position that the liver as the seat of life or of the soul is
capable of restoring the intellect and sight, which are mani-

festations of soul life. The angel Raphael tells Tobit that
by burning the liver of the fish the demon may be chased
away, and it is only the other side of the picture if the gall
is viewed as destructive of life, as, e.g., in the famous passage
in Matthew xxvii. 34, according to which Jesus on the cross
is given 'gall' mixed with vinegar. It is a common phe-
nomenon in popular traditions that what gives life is also
capable of taking it away. Corresponding then to the use
of the liver in restoring the mind of man, the drinking of gall
is portrayed by Habakkuk (ii. 15) as depriving a man of his
reason.
^^
The natives of the Tonga Islands attribute left-handed-
ness to the fact that the liver lies more to the left side, while
in the case of ambidextrous persons, the liver is supposed
to be situated toward the middle between the two sides.
The underlying belief is evidently in this case also that the
liver is the seat of movements which a later age attributed
to the brain as the seat of the soul, and the same belief
accounts for the fact that these natives attribute liver
diseases to the gods, who select this organ as the seat
^ There are good grounds for believing that the phrase keb6d Yahweh, 'glory
of God,' stands in some connection with the view that makes the liver the seat of
the soul. The 'glory of God,' in the sense in which we modems take it, has no place
in ancient Hebrew (or Semitic) thought. The real meaning of the phrase comes
nearer to the notion of 'spirit,' 'essence,' of God. The substantive form kabod
may, therefore, ultimately rest upon the identification of kabed, 'liver,' with
'soul,' 'life,' 'vitality,' 'spirit,' and the like. See Vollers, Archiv fUr Religionswis-
senschaft, ix. 180 f.
^ Yoma (Babli), 84a.
" xi. 13. See also vi. 7-9. Some texts reflecting
later practices
Chap. 4, 8,
read, 'the heart, gall-bladder, and liver.'
25
See Mariner, Tonga Islands, 2- 127, quoted by Andry, pp. 78 and 233. It is
merely a shifting from liver to heart that leads Nicholas Massa to explain left-
handedness and right-handedness according to the position of the heart.
MORRIS J.\STROW, JR. 151
of vitality to punish those guilty of transgressing taboo

ordinances.
In Arabic, too, although the word for heart is used as the
seat of the intellect, we have instances of the occurrence
of the term kabid, 'liver,' in a connection which shows that
the Arabs at one time associated the liver with the soul.
In answer to a question whether a Moslem might expect
to receive divine reward for good deeds to animals, Mo-
hammed is reported to have said, "for every moist liver
there is a reward." ^^ The 'moist liver' is the 'living liver,'
and the 'living liver' is the 'living soul.' On the occasion
of a great grief, when the fidelity of his favorite spouse was
questioned, Mohammed
says of himself, "I cried two nights
and one day, until it seemed as though my liver would
^'^
split," equivalent to our phrase 'as though my heart
would break.' In Arabic poetry the word for liver is used,
as in Hebrew poetry, as a synonjan for 'soul,' and there is
an instance of a variant reading 'laceration of the soul' for
'laceration of the liver.' ^^
An abundance of additional evidence for the same belief
among various other nations is at our disposal, all point-
ing to the circumstance that at an earlier period the liver
was accorded the position subsequently assigned to the heart,
and still later to the brain. ^^ So, to give only a few more
examples, the Armenians speak of a 'broken liver,' where
we should say a 'broken heart,' ^° and the Persians to ex-
press the idea of fear say that 'one's liver has melted.'
Among the Chinese,^^ in popular beliefs as well as in medical
treatises, the liver is regarded as the seat of the soul. Its
predominance over the heart is indicated by the designa-
tion of the liver as the 'mother of the heart,' that is to say,
the source of the functions assigned to the heart. Among
26
Bokhari (ed. Krehl) 2. 78 (chap. 42. 9). " Ibid.,
p. 155 (chap. 52. 15).
=^
Ghuzull Matali' al-Budur (Cairo ed.) 1. 198, line 6 Thousand and One
;
Nights (2d Bulak ed.) 2. 236. I owe these references to my friend. Professor
C. C. Torrey, of Yale University.
2'
Gathered by Felix Andry, Recherches sur le coeur et le foie (Paris, 1856),
pp. 225-279, without, however, recognizing the real significance of the valuable
material amassed by him with such diligence.
^°
Andry, p. 231, on the authority of Mr. Dulaurier.
'1
Scheube, in Neuburger and Pagel, Handbuch der Geschichte der Medizin, p. 25.
the Chinese we find the behcf, current also among other

nations, that one eats the Hver or gall bladder (as a part of
if
the liver) of one's enemy, one obtains the enemy's courage. ^^

In the Latin poets we encounter the liver as the seat of
anger, but also as the seat of love, of pity, as well as of fear
and the passions in general. ^^ When Ovid refers to the ^'^
custom of making an image of the enemy, and piercing the

region of the liver with a needle, as a form of sympathetic
magic, to bring about the death of the enemy, we have
another illustration of the primitive conceptions which were
connected with the liver, and which were subsequently
^^
transferred to the heart ; and when Hippocrates,^^ despite
his advanced position in assigning the highest functions of
life to the brain, still declares that the liver is the seat of the
blood, he is simply giving expression in more scientific form

to the primitive view, which places in the liver the seat of
life. Blood being associated with life, the liver as the seat
of the blood would be at the same time the seat of life.
Even in own modern and Occidental speech traces of
our
this view regarding the liver which was once so general have
"
survived. Rabelais ^^ uses the phrase Je t'ayme du bon du
foye," where liver is the equivalent of 'heart' or even soul.
The English expression 'white-livered' (see below, p. 168),
like itsGreek equivalent XevK-qiraria'^, is used as a term of
reproach for the cowardly man, but it rests for all that on
the belief that the liver is the seat of courage. It is the pale
color that transforms the courageous into a timid man,
and this is in accord with the usage among primitive peoples,
who regard a large liver as an index of great bravery.^^
In German, one still describes a man of frank, open mind
by saying 'er spricht frisch von der Leber weg' ('he speaks
directly from the liver'), and it is only a slight modification
from the same underlying view when we say, of one who is
32 ^ See the p. 240.

Andry, p. 232. collection of passages in Andry,
^ Heroides. vi. 91-92.
'^
See the picture of a pig's heart transfixed with pins and thorns, an English
rustic's malicious charm. (.Joseph Jastrow, Malicious Animal Magnetism, in
Hampton's Magazine, October, 1910, p. 451.)
36
Andry, p. 277. See below, p. 166.
" Quoted by Andry, p. 276.
3^
Andry, p. 232, reports this of the inhabitants of the Tonga Islands.
dull and colorless, that 'he has no bile';^^ and so illustra-

tions might be multiplied almost ad infinitum.
Ill
The definite proof that the location of the soul was at

one time quite generally placed in the liver is furnished by
the divination rites prevailing among people living in a
state of primitive culture. In Borneo, Uganda, Burma, and
elsewhere, when it is desired to forecast the future, to know
the outcome of sickness, the result of a military expedition,
and the like, the invariable method is to kill a pig or fowl
or goat, and to inspect the liver. From the shape and color
of the organ, and from peculiar symptoms noted on the lobes
or the gall-bladder or on the various ducts, the will and in-
tention of the gods are determined. ^° Similarly among the
inhabitants of Nadravia it is believed that by examining
the liver —
also the spleen —
of a pig one can determine
how the winter will turn out, whether the crops will be
good, whether the early or the late seed will thrive.^^ Such
'^
Also in French usage (Andry, p. 235), 'qui ne se fait pas de bile' ; and in Ger-
'
man, er hat keine Galle.'

Furness, Home Life of Borneo Head Hunters, p. 43. Dr. Furness kindly gave
*"
me a copy of a drawing made by him of a pig's liver inspected in his presence in

November, 1897, in Borneo, to obtain omens for a great peacemaking between hos-
tile tribes. See also Haddon, Head Hunters, p. 336 f Hose and McDougal in
.
;
Journal of the Anthropol. Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1901, p. 180
f. H. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, 1. 190; R. G. Latham, Descriptive
;
Ethnology, 1. 61 f. J. G. Scott, Gazetteer of Upper Burma, 1. 552.

; A mal-
formed liver or one of an unusually dark color is an unfavorable omen a smooth ;
and pale-colored one is favorable. Mr. J. G. Frazer in a letter to the writer

(June 20, 1907) quotes from his notes of a conversation with Messrs. Roscoe and
Miller, missionaries to Uganda, that "divination was practised in L^ganda, goats
were killed, and from an inspection of the inwards the diviner made his prediction.
The was
especially consulted."
liver Many travellers in describing divination
rites primitive peoples speak in an indefinite way of the "entrails," others of
among
the heart and lungs (see the quotations in Blecher, de Extispicio, p. 73 f.), but
one may be permitted to doubt whether the explorers in question actually witnessed
the inspection. It will probably be found that the 'entrails' were in reality the
liver; and when Spenser St. John speaks of "signs discovered upon the heart" of
the pig among the Sakarang Dayaks (Life in the Forests of the Far East, 1. 63 f.),
itwas in all probability a liver that he saw, or that was described to him. Unless
an explorer has his attention especially directed towards it, he might easily mistake
one part of a victim for the other.
*^
Matthaeus Prsetorius, Delicise Prussicae (ed. Pierson, Berlin, 1870). I owe
this reference to Dr. L. H. Gray.
rites rest on the belief that the liver is the seat of life, and
can be satisfactorily explained only on this assumption.
As will be pointed out below, the soul of the animal, dedi-
cated to a deity and accepted by him, reflects the soul of
the god. If, therefore, one reads the soul of a pig, fowl, or
goat as the case may be, one obtains, as it were, an insight
into the soul of the god. The rite on this assumption be-
comes intelligible, and it may be put down as an axiom
that primitive rites everywhere rest on a well-defined theory,
— frequently elaborate and complicated, and are not the —
outcome of mere caprice or fancy.
The view that the liver is the seat of life or of the soul
crops out also in such beliefs found among primitive peoples

as that the liver of the dead guru transmits to the one who
eats it the powers of its former possessor,^^ or that the dried
and pulverized liver of buffaloes, when given to cows, insures
their fertilit3^^^
The same method of divination plays a most prominent
part in the Babylonian-Assyrian ritual, and it is sufficient
to refer for the full exposition of the rite with copious ex-
amples to chapter 20 in the writer's Religion Bal^yloniens
und Assyriens (2. The antiquity of the rite and
213-415).
hence its from primitive conditions is shown
direct descent
by the references to it in the earliest Babylonian texts,'*^
while the strong hold that the rite had secured follows from
its persistence from the oldest period down to the end of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. On all occasions when it became

important to determine what the gods had in mind for the
country or the individual, divination through the liver of
a sacrificial animal —
invariably a sheep was the means —
resorted to. So closely indeed was the liver bound up with
divination that the cuneiform sign for liver was also used
as the designation of an omen.'*'' That the Babylonians,
indeed, also reached the stage in which the important func-
tions of the heart by the side of the liver were recognized,
^ Dehon, Religion and Customs of the Uraons (Memoirs of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, 1. 143).
^
Klinghardt, Beobachtungen aus Mpororo (German Africa), in Globus, 87. 308.
**
Gudea (ca. 2350 B.C.). See Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens,
*^
2. 273. Jastrow, Religion, 2. 217.
is to be granted,and follows from the phrase so frequently

found inlamentation hymns addressed to an angered deity :
^^
"May thy heart be at rest, thy liver be appeased." Here
'heart' and 'liver' sum up the personality of the deity;
and it is reasonable to conclude that in this combination
'heart' represents, as in Hebrew, the intellect, and 'liver'
the emotions. Despite this differentiation, however, the
heart does not appear at any time to have found a place in
the divination rites of the Babylonians and Assyrians.
This is a valuable confirmation of the thesis that the loca-
tion of the soul in the liver represents the older and more
primitive view, and, therefore, was assigned a place in the
ritual to the exclusion of the heart.
The prominent part played by divination through the
liver, or hepatoscopy, among the Babylonians and Assyrians
from the oldest to the latest period illustrates not only the
importance attached to the rite, but also the persistency'^ of
the belief in the theory underlying the rite. That theory
may be briefly stated as follows :^^
The god in accepting the animal offered to him assimilates
himself with the animal, much in the same way that a man
becomes one with the food that he eats. The pouring or
smearing of the animal's blood over the altar or stone that
is the seat of the deity is merely a symbolical expression of
the view that the god is actually united to the animal. The
soul of the god and the soul of the animal are thus put in
complete accord. The two souls may be compared to two
watches regulated to show exactly the same time, so that
if you see the one, you know the indications furnished
by
the other. The liver of the sacrificial animal as the seat of
the soul thus becomes the exact reflection of the soul, i.e.,
therefore, the mind and thought of the god. If one can
read the indications furnished by the animal's liver aright,
one enters thereby into the mind of the god and can de-
«Jastrow, Religion, 2. 29, 76, 78, 82, 85, 98, etc. (in all of which passages the
word in question is kahittu, and should therefore have been literally translated as
'Leber,' and not 'Gemiit')-
*'
For a fuller statement see a paper by the writer, "Hepatoscopy and Astrology
among the Babylonians and Assyrians" (Proceedings American Philosophical
Society, 49. 64G-676) and chapter iii in the writer's Aspects of Religious Belief
and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (N.Y., 1911),
termine his innermost thought. Liver divination is there-

fore the earliest form of 'mind reading,' and the prognosti-
cation of the future follows as a natural corollary. The
future being in control of the gods, if one knows what is in
the mind of the gods, one knows what is going to happen
on earth.
IV
There are two points of view from which the study of

liver divination among the Babylonians and Assyrians as-
sumes an importance transcending the mere significance at-
tached to an old religious rite. Through this study we are
led to a view of animal sacrifice which has hitherto escaped
the notice of investigators, and the very antiquity of the
rite makes it at least possible that the offering of an animal
for the purpose of divining the future through the inspec-
tion of the liver may represent the oldest motive for animal
sacrifice in general. Certainly, among the Babylonians
and Assyrians, the actual killing of the animal in honor of
a god appears to have been undertaken solely as a means of
divining the will and intentions of the gods. The evidence
is both abundant and conclusive that the offering of an ani-
mal was always associated with the divining of the future,

and was viewed as a divination rite among the Babylonians
and Assyrians. The thought of a sacrifice as a means of
communion between the worshipper and the deity, what-
ever may be the facts among other nations,^^ is conspicuous
for its absence in the civilization produced in the Euphrates
Valley ; and even sacrifice as a tribute appears to be secondary
in character. Without entering into the details of the sub-
which would carry us too far, the suggestion may
ject here,
be thrown out that sacrifice as tribute, which is fundamental
to the rite as set forth in the Pentateuchal codes, repre-
sents a higher and later view. The compilers of these codes
must, of course, have known that animal sacrifice was a rite
common to the nations around. In embodying it as a rite
in their code, both in connection with the expiatory and puri-
^* Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 251
It is suflBcient to refer here to
' '
f., and the same author's article on Sacrifice in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
(10th edition).
fication ritualand as a symbol of thanksgiving, they sought

to invest it new meaning that would separate it from
with a
associations distasteful to them, and for this reason con-
ceived of it as a tribute to the deity,^^
symbol of communion between the worship-
Sacrifice as a
per and the god appears to be incidental to the rite, prompted
by the desire or instinct to sanctify the blood on the one
hand, and on the other to participate actively in this sancti-
fication.
Liver divination has wider bearings also from another
point of view. It marks the beginnings of the study of
^°
anatomy, for in the effort to note the signs on the liver, the
organ itself was studied, and a terminology developed which
distinguished its various parts. Thus the right and left
lobe were distinguished as the right and left wing, the gall-
bladder was designated as the 'bitter' part, the cystic duct
by an ideograph which appears to have conveyed the idea
of a penis, while the hepatic duct was spoken of as the 'foot.'
The upper lobe, known in modern terminology as the lobus
caudatus, was likewise distinguished by a separate designa-
tion, as were the two appendices attached to this lobe, the
larger one (the processus pyramidalis) being appropriately
named the 'finger' of the liver. The porta hepatis was de-
scribed as a 'womb,' while the markings on the liver, due
for the most part to the tracings on the liver surface of the
subsidiary ducts gathering the gall from the liver into the
hepatic duct, were known as 'holes,' 'paths,' or 'weapons,'
and fantastically associated, according to their constantly
varying forms, with the weapons of the gods.
The method of divination rested largely on association of
ideas. A long cystic duct was interpreted as pointing to
long life, or to a long reign the swollen gall-bladder, to
;
increase, with a further differentiation according as the

swelling appeared on the right side or on the left side. As
*^
From this point of view the protest against sacrifice as a divination rite,
' '
embodied in the ordinance to burn the flap over the Hver (the processus pjTa-
midalis), becomes all the more intelligible. See on this ordinance, Professor G. F.
Moore's paper in the Noeldeke Festschrift, pp. 761 ff., and the note by the writer in
Jastrow, Religion, 2. 231.
^^
See a paper by the writer on 'Di\'ination through the Liver and the Begin-
nings of Anatomy' (Transactions of the College of Physicians, 29. 117-138).
among other nations, the right was the favorable, and the
the unfavorable side. A doubled hepatic duct on the
' '
left
right side indicated assistance from the gods, a well pre-

served 'finger' (processus pyramidalis) meant good luck. If
the hepatic duct lay well in the porta hepatis and firmly
attached to it, the omen was favorable if loosely attached ;
or separated from it, imfavorable ; and the like. It will be
readily seen how endless the variations would turn out to

be. No two livers ever presented exactly the same appear-
ance, and thus in the course of time a vast collection of signs
with their prognostications were gathered by the priests at-
tached to the temples, that served the purpose of guides or
handbooks to determine the general result in
any particular
instance. The various parts of the liver and all the mark-
ings and other peculiarities were examined, and according

as the majority of them proved favorable or unfavorable, a
general conclusion was drawn as to whether the gods were
favorably disposed towards any proposed undertaking, or
whether the moment chosen was not opportune.
In view of the fact to which attention was above directed,^^
that divination through the liver is still practised among
people living in a primitive state of culture, the conclusion
is warranted that the Babylonian system is based on the
primitive custom, representing an elaboration of the early

popular practice brought about through the 6dr?l -priests.
More than this, it was because of the perfection of this
elaborate system that the rite managed to survive through-
out the phases of culture through which the Babylonians
and Assyrians in the course of many centuries passed.
From the earliest period down to the days of the last king
of Babylonia,^- hepatoscopy continued in force as the
official method of divining the future; and while other
methods were also resorted to, none equalled in importance
and scope the system of divination through the liver.
Outside of Babylonia, the most significant instance of
hepatoscopy is furnished by the Etruscans, among whom
likewise an elaborate system was developed. The evidence
for this, drawn from the Latin writers, was so conclusive as
61
See above, p. 153 f.
^^
ggg the proof in Jastrow, Religion, 2. 273 f.
to lead Bouche-Leclercq thirty years ago

^^
to sum up the
Etruscan system of divination as "I'etude du foie est le tout
de Fart." His view has been confirmed by later students,'^
and more particularly through the discovery of a bronze
model of a liver covered with Etruscan inscriptions.^^ This
model forms a striking companion piece to a clay model of
a liver acquired by the British Museum in 1891, which
dates, as the writing shows, from the Hammurapi period,
i.e. ca. 2000 b.c.'"^ Like the latter, it must have been used
as an object lesson in hepatoscopy for the instruction of the
young aspirants to the priesthood. In both models the chief
parts of the liver are indicated, and the inscriptions show
that the liver was regarded as a means of divining the
future. Further evidence that the liver was regarded as
the organ of revelation is furnished by a monument of an
Etruscan augur, who holds a liver in his hand as his trade
mark.^'^ We have, therefore, the proof that among the
Etruscans likewise the belief which placed the seat of the
soul in the liver survived up to the advanced period when
the primitive method of divining through the liver was de-
veloped into a system, and taught to the priests as an integral
part of their training.
It is generally admitted that the Romans adopted their
methods of divination from the Etruscans, as is shown by
the fact that the augurs in Rome and those who accom-
panied the Roman armies on their expeditions were almost
invariably from Etruria.^^ That among the Romans like-
wise divination was at first restricted to the liver is attested
by the notice in Pliny, that at the time Pyrrhus was driven
from Italy, corresponding to the year 274 B.C., the heart was
for the first time used as a means of divining the future. ^^
The conclusion is therefore warranted that up to this period
^ Histoire de la Divination dans
I'Antiquite, 4. 69 (Paris, 1877).
^ See
especially Thulin, Die Etruskische Disciplin, 2. 20 f. (Goteburg, 1905).
*^ "
Korte, "Die Bronzeleber von Piacenza, in Mitteilungen des kaiserlichen
deutschen archaologischen Instituts (Rbmische Abteilung), 20. 348-379. It dates
from about the third century b.c. ^^
Cuneiform Texts, etc.. Part vi, PI. 1.
^^
See the illustration in Korte's paper, PI. XIV also in Blecher, De Extispicio,
;
Tab. Ill, fig. 2.

Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 41, who also tells us that it was customary to
^^
send the children of the principal senators to Etruscan tribes to be instructed in

59
divination. jjist. Nat., Book xi. § 71.
the liver alone was examined and the fact that in the omens
;
referred to by the Latin writers it is the liver that is in most

cases mentioned, bears out the conclusion.
A most interesting passage is to be found in the eleventh
book of Pliny (§ 73), devoted to a description of the various
organs and parts of the body of animals. "The liver," says
Pliny, "lies on the right side, and that part of it which is
^^
called the head (caput) presents a great variety." At the
time of the death of Marcellus, who perished in the conflict
against Hannibal, it was missing among the exta. On the
following day (in connection with the sacrifice) a double
caput appeared. The caput was missing also at a sacrifice
which C. Marius brought at Utica, likewise in the case of
Gains on the first of January of the year in which he entered
upon the consulate and during which he was killed, and again
in the case of his successor Claudius in the month in which
he was poisoned. ^^ When the Emperor Augustus on the
first day of his rule offered up victims, the livers were found
folded (replicata) from the lower end (fibra). The omen
was interpreted as pointing to a 'duplication' of the extent
of his power within the year. 'If the head is split,' we are
told, it is always a bad sign, except when one is in trouble

and pain. In such cases it indicates a removal of the evil.
Pliny refers also to the use of the gall-bladder for purposes
of divination, and mentions that on the day of Augustus's
victory at Actium, a double gall-bladder was found in the
sacrificial victim.
Livy has many passages in which he refers to the exta

examined on various occasions,^^ but the only specific indi-
cations furnished by him are in reference to signs on the liver.
So e.g. in the 27th book of his History he gives a detailed
account of the death of Marcellus, and in agreement with
' *
Pliny states that at the first inspection the head of the liver
(caput jocineris) was missing, and that in the case of the
victim on the following day the 'head' appeared doubled.^'
^^
The processus pyramidalis, which in Greek hepatoscopy is designated as
6 Xo/36s. See below p. 162, note 71, and above, note 49.
^'
of this omen are given by Andry, loc. cit., p. 245 f.
Other examples
^-
See the passages in Blecher, De Extispicio, pp. 11-14.
^ Book xxvii. 26. See also Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia, i. 6. 9 ; Plutarch,
Marcellus, § 29.
On another occasion, when Q. Petilius sacrificed a victim,

^^
the 'head' of the Hver was missing, and the same phenome-
non is noted by him at other inspections.^^ Similarly Julius
Obsequens specifies in four instances mentioned by him
that the 'head' of the liver was not found, ^^ and only in one
^^
case does he refer to the heart. It would appear, there-
fore, that even after the inspection of other organs nota- —
bly the heart was added to —
that of the liver, chief attention
was still paid to the signs on the liver an indication that —
hepatoscopy was at one time the prevailing method of div-
ination among the Romans, as among the Etruscans and
Babylonians. The addition of the heart to the liver corre-
sponds manifestly to the time when, instead of regarding the
liver as the seat of vitality, the heart was accorded this dis-
tinction and this change reflected no doubt the progress
;
in anatomical knowledge, through which the important

functions of the heart were more clearly recognized. Andry
has shown that everywhere the investigation of the anatomy
of the heart is later than the knowledge of the functions of
the liver. With the addition, however, of the examination
of the heart to that of the liver, the theoretical basis upon
which hepatoscopy rested, namely the belief that the liver
was the seat of the soul, was lost sight of. With the modi-
fication of this belief through the transference of the seat to
the heart, the rationale of hepatoscopy disappeared. Con-
sistency would have demanded that heart divination should
take the place of liver divination. By retaining the latter
and adding to the examination of the liver that of the heart,
a compromise with advancing anatomical science was ef-
fected, with the fatal result, however, of changing the rite
into a meaningless superstition. To this period, after the
disappearance of the theoretical basis of hepatoscopy, be-
longs the general term exta, which is invariably used by the
Latin writers when referring to divination through a sacrifi-
cial animal. Through the analysis here given we can now
understand why, despite the employment of the general
term, it is not the 'entrails,' as is generally assumed by
" Book 65
Book ««
De
xli. 14. xli. 15. Prodigiis (ed. Rossbach), 17, So, 47, 55.
^'
§ 67, on the occasion when Caesar was invested. See also Cicero, De Divina-
tione, i. 119.
investigators, that were the subject of examination, but pri-

marily, even to the latest days, the liver, and by the side of
the liver, in place the heart, and then the lungs,
the first
and occasionally the The term exta was merely in-

milt/'^
troduced as a general one, to embrace the entire scope.
Similarly, in the Greek writers we encounter a general
term lepd or lepda, 'the sacred parts,' ^^ used for divination
through a sacrificial animal. And yet, as a matter of fact,
when we examine the passages in which specific instances of
such divination are given, it is again the liver or parts of
the liver that are almost invariably mentioned. So e.g.
the messenger in the Electra of Euripides, describing how
Orestes stole upon ^gisthos, as the latter was bending over
the lepd of the sacred victim to ascertain what the signs
^°
portended, says :
Holding the sacred parts in his hands

iEgisthos examined and there was no lobe '*
;
To the entrails the gate " and the bag of the gall-bladder black.
;
"'"^
Portending evil prognostications to the one examining (them).
Similarly,when ^schylus describes the benefits conferred

by Prometheus on mankind, the art of divination through
the flight of birds and through the sacrificial victim is prom-
inently mentioned and although in the description of the
;
latter method the general term a-TrXdyx^f^} 'entrails,' is

employed, the specific organ referred to is the liver,^^
««
See Thulin, Die Etruskisclie Disciplin, 2. 23.
69
See the passages in Blecher, De Extispicio, pp. 3-11. ''°
Lines 826-829.
'1
The lobe par excellence in Greek hepatoscopy is the finger-shaped appendix
known as the processus pyramidalis, corresponding to the caput jecoris (or jocineris),
'
head of the liver,' in Roman hepatoscopy. See above, p. 160. This term 6 Xo/36s is
employed in the Greek translation of the Pentateuch for the Hebrew equivalent
' '
of the processus pyramidalis (see above, p. 157, note 49), an interesting indication
that the translators were familiar with the terminology of Greek hepatoscopy.
'
This 'appendix is described in Nicander, Theriaca, 559 f., as "the top lobe growing
from the table {i.e., the lobus caudatus), and bending over near the gall-bladder
and the gate (porta hepatis)."
o-7rXd7xi'a, a general term corresponding to the Latin exta, but evidently in-
"'-
tended in passages like this for the liver.
TTvXai, the designation of the depression between the upper lobe (lobus
'''
caudatus) of the liver and the left lower lobe (lobus sinister). The term still sur-
vives in modem anatomical nomenclature, which designates this part of the liver as
'
the porta hepatis, gate of the liver.' See Jastrow, Bfligion (German ed.), 2. 220.
'^
Prometheus, lines 495-499.
The entrails' smoothness,

what would be pleasing to the gods,
color
the well-proportioned shape of the gall and lobe."
Particularly significant in this respect is the testimony

of Xenophon, who in his various writings has frequent
references to omens, derived from the examination of the
victim."^ He contents himself in all but two passages with
the general term lepd, and in these passages "^ he specifies
that "the liver was without a lobe," which was regarded as
unfavorable. The same inauspicious omen is mentioned by
Plutarch in connection with an incident in the campaign of
Alexander against Babylonia. Upon being told by Pytha-
goras, the diviner, that the lobe of the victim's liver was
lacking, Alexander exclaimed, "Alas, the omen is terrible." '^
Great stress is laid upon the same omen

in Arrian's account
of this campaign Plutarch in the life of
of Alexander."^
*'
Aratus (§ 43) refers to the appearance of a double gall-
bladder, enclosed in one bag," a phenomenon that is not in-
frequent in the case of diseased livers of sheep. The omen
was interpreted as foreshadowing a covenant that Aratus
would make with his greatest enemy,^° and the same Plutarch
recounts ^^ how the death of one of his relatives was an-
nounced to Pyrrhus by a diviner because of the absence of
the lobe of the liver on the occasion of a sacrifice. Thus
it is always some part of the liver or some mark on the liver
that is specified whenever divination through a sacrificial

victim is spoken of in Greek writers. There does not in fact
appear to be a single passage in which any other organ''
^* *
again the processus pyramidalis.
I.e.
^«
E.g., Anabasis,i. 8. 15; ii. 2. 3; v. 2. 9; 4. 22; 6. 28; vi. 2. 15; 4. 9; 4. 13;
4. 16; 4. 17; 4. 19; 5. 2; vii. 6. 44; 8. 10; Hellenica, iii. 1. 17; 3. 4; 4. 15; iv.
4. 5 ; 7. 7 ; 8. 36 Cyiopsedia, ii. 4. 18.
;
" Hellenica, iii. 4. 15 iv. 7. 7.;

''«
Life of Alexander, § 73.
^^
Arrian, Anabasis, vii. 18. 2-5. Four instances are cited.
®°
By a natural association of ideas the 'double' gall-bladder in one bag is
interpreted as referring to a close union. Aratus —

so the narrative proceeds —
soon thereafter was invited to a feast by his former enemy Antigonus, to whom
he had been reconciled. Aratus felt cold, and a slave covered him and Antigonus
with the same garment —
corresponding, therefore, to the double gall-bladder in
a single bag. "Aratus," Plutarch adds, "remembered the omen, burst out laugh-
ing, and told the king about the
sacrifice and the prophecy."
*i
Life of Pyrrhus, § 30.
Plutarch adds that Pyrrhus, disregarding or obli\-ious
of the omen, sent his son Ptolemy into the battle, and the latter was killed.
than the hver is specified ; and the practical synonymity

of r)7rap, 'Hver,' and (rirXdryxya, 'entrails,' follows also from
a passage in Paiisanias (vi. 2. 4), where he describes a dog,
"cut in two, like a sacrificial victim, with his liver exposed,'*

lying next to the statue of Thrasybulos, and immediately
thereafter speaks of the rite of divination through the
'entrails' of dogs, which appears (he suggests) to have been
established by Thrasybulos.
The
conclusion, therefore, is justified in the case of the
Greeks, as in that of the Romans, that divination through
the sacrificial animal was at one time restricted to the use
of the liver of the animal ; and since we have no direct evi-
dence that the Greeks inspected also the heart and lungs,
the term 'sacred parts' may have been introduced to in-
clude the gall-bladder, the various lobes and ducts which
might appropriately have been grouped together, as lepd
or lepela, while the vague term cnrXd'^'xya may also have
been intended —
at least originally —
to embrace the same
parts.
That there is some connection between Babylonian and
Greek hepatoscopy is generally taken for granted by
scholars, but it is still a question open to discussion whether
the Greeks obtained their method directly from the Baby-
lonians or through the mediation of the Etruscans. If, as
seems probable, the Etruscans came from Asia Minor, they
may well have left traces of their influence upon the Greek
settlements near the coast, who in turn may have carried
the rite across to Hellas. Clay models of livers, similar to
the one above referred to,^^ have been found recently at
Boghaz-Keui,^^
—
the ancient centre of a Hittite empire, —
testifying to the existence of the rite of hepatoscopy at an
early period in the very district from which the Etruscans
may have come. We thus obtain an uninterrupted chain
of Bab^'lonian influence, embracing Etruscans, Greeks, and
Romans, as well as Hittites. We
have also the definite
proof, furnished through the prevalence of hepatoscopy
among all these groups, of the widespread character of the
^
Page 159. The University of Penn. Museum also has such a model.
^ The Berlin Museum has three such
clay models with Babylonian inscriptions
in which the same technical terms occur as in the Babylonian 'liver' texts.
theory on which the rite rested, and through which it finds

an explanation, to wit, the behef that the Hver was the seat
of the soul.s"
The more rational views regarding the liver

transition to
which followed wake of advancing anatomical knowl-
in the
edge is illustrated by the statement of Vitruvius (De Archi-

tectura, i. 18) that it was customary before settling in a
region to examine the livers of animals in the district. If
the livers were found diseased, it was an indication that the
locality was unhealthful. We
may be certain that originally
the animal was slaughtered as an offering to secure the favor
of the local deity, and that the liver was inspected for signs
to ascertain whether the genius loci would look with favor
upon the proposed settlement. The transformation of the
old divination rite into a hygienic measure represents an at-
tempt at a rationalistic interpretation, which is so frequently
the last resort to justify a custom that has outlived itself.
The statement of Vitruvius reminds one of the attempts
to explain the food taboos in the Pentateuchal codes as hy-
gienic measures. That some of these may be hygienic may
be admitted, but we may be equally certain that their basis
is not hygienic, and that they are survivals of primitive be-
liefs. In primitive religions precautions are prescribed to
protect oneself from the saliva of an enemy or a sorcerer,
for fear that it might be used as a spell. In order to protect
people from germs of disease, modern boards of health
also pass ordinances against spitting, but as a recent writer
says, "The order of thinking in which the one fear finds
a place is centuries apart from that of the other." ®^ He
might have said milleniums.
Old beliefs, like old rites, die hard, and both pass through
^ be of interest to note the following instance of divination through the
It may
liver in own country. Dr. Haddon informs me that when the colony of
our
Igorrotes (of the Philippine Islands), who had been taken from place to place for
exhibition purposes after the St. Louis Exposition, were informed that they would
soon be sent back to their homes, they killed a pig and inspected the liver, in order
to ascertain whether the day selected for the beginning of the homeward journey
was an auspicious one. This inspection took place in Chicago in 1901.
*5
Joseph Jastrow in Hampton's Magazine, October, 1910, p. 418.
many transformations before they finally disappear. The

thesis of Hippocrates above referred to,^^ that the liver was
the seat of the blood, or, as he also puts it, the starting-point
of the veins, is put forward as a scientific theory, but it would
not have arisen had not the liver once been regarded as the
seat of vitality. In so far, Hippocrates is still under the in-
fluence of primitive views, though he already foreshadows
the new age in assigning disease to four sources to the brain, :
to the heart, to the spleen, and to the liver, the most prom-
^^
inent place, however, being accorded to the liver. Galen,
four centuries after Hippocrates, betrays the same influence
in making the liver the seat of the bodily heat, a view closely
allied to that of making that organ the seat of the blood.
Such survivals are the less surprising, if it be borne in mind
that Galen still believed in dreams as well as in sorcery and
charms. In fact, he tells us that he was prompted to the
study of medicine through a dream that his father had.
But perhaps the most interesting illustration of the hold
which the old view regarding the liver as the seat of the soul
continued to exercise, long after the absurdity of its rationale
had been recognized, is furnished by Plato, who so often
surprises us by his compromising endeavors to pour old wine
into new bottles. He assigns to the heart and not to the
liver the distinction of being the starting-point of the veins,
and he recognizes the functions of the brain as well as those
of the heart but yielding to the temptation to find a justifica-
;
tion for the prominence once accorded to the liver, he sets

forth in the Timseus ^^ the theory that man has two souls —
an inferior or mortal soul, by the side of a superior and
immortal soul that comes direct from the Creator. He
places the seat of the lower functions, as eating, drinking,
and the satisfaction of other bodily needs, between the mid-
"
riff and the navel, contriving," to quote Jowett's transla-
tion,^^ "in all this region a sort of manger for the food of
the body and there they (i.e. the gods) bound the desires
;
down as a wild animal which was chained up with man, and

must be nourished, if man was to exist." In this inferior
8« ^^ ^^
See above, p. 152. Andry, p. 237 f .
xim., 69-72.
«9
Dialogues of Plato, 2. 562.
soul, however, God framed the liver to act as a kind of

transmitter to the lower soul of that which originates in the
"
mind. The liver reflects the thought as in a mirror which
receives and gives back images to the sight." Through the
liver a means of divination is given to mankind, "for the
authors of our being, remembering the command of their
father when he bade them make the human race as good as
they could, thus ordered our inferior parts in order that they
too might obtain a measure of truth, and in the liver placed
their oracle, which is sufficient proof that God has given the
art of divination to the foolishness of man. . . Such is .
the nature and position of the liver, which is intended to

give prophetic intimations. During the life of each indi-
vidual these intimations are plainer, but after his death the
liver becomes blind, and delivers oracles too obscure to be
intelligible."
Plato seems to be making a polemic against divination
through the liver in the case of slaughtered animals (when
the liver is 'blind'), but on the other hand he also appears to
make a concession to the prevailing rites, by admitting that
the liver is an organ of divination.
Jowett says of the Timseus ^ that of all the writings of
Plato it is "the most obscure and repulsive to the modern
reader," and scholars are not agreed exactly what position
to accord to the Timseus in Plato's system of philosophy ;
but so much seems certain, that he endeavored in this treatise

to give to ancient myths and popular beliefs and traditions
a rational interpretation, though with doubtful success.
The higher and better part of the mortal soul he places above
the diaphragm, and assigns the seat of nobler emotions, as
love and courage, to the heart while the brain, the seat of
;
the intellect, and exercising the highest functions, is the place

of the immortal soul. The passions and all of the lower
emotions, such as jealousy and cowardice, are thus made
to originate in the liver as the centre of the inferior phase
of the lower or mortal soul.
The interesting point for us in this intellectual gymnastics
is the transition that it foreshadows to the views still popu-
larly held.
90
Dialogues of Plato, 2. '^5.
Current usage, without attempting to justify its position

on grounds, still divides, as did Plato, the chief
scientific
manifestations of human action among the three organs,
the brain, the heart, and the liver, thought being associated
with the brain, the higher emotions with the heart, and the
lower ones with the liver —
"Liver, brain, and heart, these
^^
sovereign thrones." Plato also foreshadows the very un-
favorable view taken of the liver in popular fancy, justified
only to a limited extent by physiological considerations.
Ill -humor, bad temper, and moroseness, as well as all manner
of disagreeable manifestations of a crabbed disposition, are
popularly ascribed to the liver, though most persons who
show these unpleasant traits have very healthy livers, and
a disordered stomach or a bad headache is apt to produce
the same effects on one's mood as a torpid liver. Nothing
that can be said against the liver seems too bad, and the
popular conception of it is well illustrated in an announce-
ment of a London newspaper, that commends itself to the
public by advertising that it is "all brain and heart, but no
liver." One cannot help feeling a pang of sympathy for the
liver,that to the ancients spelled life, and now is associated
only with what is least commendable and desirable in life.
To call a man 'white-livered' is among us a term of re-
proach, whereas in Babylonia it might have been the phrase
to convey all that is implied in the colloquial expression, a
'
white man
'
—
pure, virtuous, of superior intellect in —
short a noble and rare soul, as among the Arabs a white
heart is a pure heart. ^^
'1
Twelfth Night, act I, scene 1. See also Cymbeline, act V, scene 1, "Liver,
heart, and brain of Britain."
^ an instance of the same usage among the Kafirs.
Andry, p. 5, gives
THE SIKH RELIGION
Maurice Bloomfield
Johns Hopkins University
Every attempt to describe or analyze any one of the

many later varieties of Hindu religion meets with the same
standard difficulty, namely, the difficulty of differentiating.
From the time of the Upanishads on, India is axiomatically
monistic or pantheistic. In Buddhism the All-Spirit has faded
out into a blank, but we can tell the precise spot where once
stood the conception of the True One that hath no Second,
the Brahma. His mighty shadow hovers over Buddha's
agnostic teaching.^ It is even difficult to point out what Bud-
dhism can accomplish that may not be equally well accom-
plished by Brahmanism (Vedanta) in its highest moods.
All Hindu religion, at its best, is spiritual, is directed towards
emancipating the individual ego from an illusory, negligible
world. No higher Hindu religion is, or indeed can be, ac-
tuated by any communistic or national ideal, nor by any
other ideal that we are accustomed to consider practical.
The doctrines of the late sect of the Sikhs or 'Disciples'
are no exception to the universal Hinduism of all native re-
ligious thought in India. It comes, therefore, as a surprise,
when we read in a recent comprehensive work on this re-
ligion, that "it would be difficult to point to a religion of
greater originality, or to a more comprehensive ethical
system." Sikh religion is not original, but universally Hindu.
Its ethics, like those of all higher Hindu religions, are inci-
dental, because the supreme conception of Hinduism is
really removed from quality, good, bad, or indifferent. At
the best the new thing in Sikhism is, as we shall see, its shift
of attitude, both positively and negatively, towards certain
'
Cf the story
. of Malukya or Malunkyaputta in Majjhima-Nikaya, 63.
169
1.70 THE SIKH RELIGION
of the ancient Hindu institutions, and the attunement, to

some extent, of the universal Hindu gospel of resignation or
despair to the most necessary requirements of national exist-
ence, at a time when national existence was in danger of
being wiped out by Mohammedanism.
The work referred to is that of M. A. Macauliffe, The
Sikh Religion, six volumes, published by the Oxford (Claren-

don) Press, in 1909. Mr. Macauliffe devoted twenty years
of obviously loving study to his subject, part of the time
while engaged in judicial duties in India, and part after
resigning his post for the very purpose of carrying on his
Sikh studies more undisturbedly. He spent many years
among the Sikhs, and with them studied their sacred texts.
His work consists in the main of the lives of the ten Gurus
(Teachers or Pontiffs), beginning with Nanak and ending
with Govind Singh, and a translation of their prayers,
hymns, and acrostics, as contained in the Granth Sahib or
'Holy Bible.' To these are added the biographies of the
so-called Bhagats (Sanskrit Bhagavat), or Hindu reformers
before Nanak. The Granth is written not in one language,
but in many : Old Hindi, Mahratthi, Panjabi, Multani,
and to some extent even in Persian. Sound philological
basis for the study of Sikhism is wanting, so long as there are
no editions, by competent hands, at least of the texts of the
Adi-Granth, or 'Original Bible,' which was compiled by the
fifth Guru, Arjan (1581-1616). Arjan gathered carefully
the religious poems of his predecessors in the pontificate,
adding to them a rich anthology from the sayings of the
Bhagats,
— men like Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and even the
Persians, Farid and Bhikan. The Granth contains the wise
sayings of fourteen of these Bhagats. Even a perfervid
poem by a princess of the name of Mira Bai, full of mystic
love (bhakti) of God in the form of Krishna, has found a
place in the collection.
On the whole and in the main, Mr. Macauliffe's work im-
presses one as a reliable account of Sikhism as the Sikhs see
it— that, but nothing more. The quasi-historical accounts
of the Gurus are based upon zealot Sikh sources full of fond
and unbridled fancies. By every token these lives of the
Gurus are legendary, fantastic, and largely incredible. Also
MAURICE BLOOMFIELD 171
as regards the interpretation of the poetry and religious

thought of the Granth, I am sure that something will have
to be deducted on account of the author's compulsory re-
liance on the old Gyanis, or professional interpreters, who
are now dying out. The traditional translations (sampardai
arths= Sanskrit sampradaya-artha) of the present day must
have about the same value as the traditional interpretations
of other ancient Hindu religious texts. Mr. Macauliffe
remarks that he met so-called Gyanis who could perform
tours de force with their sacred writings, and give different
interpretations of almost every line of it. As regards his
own renderings, he remarks, that "when second and third
interpretations seemed
possible, they have been appended
in the notes." Decidedly this reminds us of the Sayanas,
Madhavas, and their ilk. Sikh philology of the remoter
future will gratefully remember Mr. Macauliffe's work, but
it will remember it as a great work of orientation rather than
a critical analysis of Sikh teachings or an unprejudiced his-

tory of the development of the Sikh nation.
Sikhism arose in the north of India during the period of
its by the Mohammedan (Mogul) con-
greatest oppression
querors. Nanak, the first Sikh prophet, seems to have been
imprisoned and made to work as a slave by Emperor Babar.
He speaks of his times as follows :
This age is a knife, kings are butchers ; justice hath taken wings and
fled.
The Guru, Arjan, was tortured to death by Emperor

fifth
Jahangir partly on account of his religion, and partly because

he had extended hospitality to Jahangir's rebellious son
"
Khusrau. In his defence the Guru said I regard all people,
:
whether rich or poor, friend or foe, without love or hate;

and it is on this account that I gave thy son some money for
his journey, and not because he was in opposition to thee.
If I had not assisted him in his forlorn condition, and so
shown some regard for the kindness of thy father, the Em-
peror Akbar, to myself, all men would despise me for my
heartlessness and ingratitude, or would say that I was afraid
of thee. This would have been unworthy of a follower of
Guru Nanak, the world's Guru."
172 THE SIKH RELIGION
The bloody Emperor Aurangzeb slew his own brother

Darah Shukoh, that enlightened prince to whom we owe
the Persian translation of the Hindu Upanishads, the so-
called Oiipnekhats. He also caused the death of the ninth
Guru, Teg Bahadur, persecuted the tenth and last Guru,
Govind Singh, and brought about the death of his four
sons. Then ended the spiritual dynasty of the Gurus.
Nanak, the originator and first Guru of Sikhism, was born
A.D. 1469. At that time about one-third of the population
of Northern India had become Moslem. Mohammedan
monotheism, through its abhorrence of idol-worship, had
shaken the complicated and abased forms of lower Hinduism ;
had attracted the lower classes of the population, who could,

through it, from the oppression and degra-
free themselves
dation of caste and had introduced into the pantheistic
;
ideal of higher Hinduism a strong dash of monotheism, which

promoted its own marked inclination in the same direction.
In practice, however, both Hinduism and Mohammedanism
were effete religions, despised by many religious thinkers
who preceded Nanak. One of the hymns of the Bhagat
Kabir (born a.d. 1398) satirizes Hindu practices :
If union with God be obtained by going about naked,

AH the beasts of the forest shall be saved.
What mattereth it whether man goeth naked or weareth a deerskin.
If he recognize God in his heart ?
If perfection be obtained by shaving the head.
Why should not sheep obtain salvation ?
O brethren, the continent man is saved.
If,
Why should not a eunuch obtain the supreme reward ?

^
Or Nanak used
'
to say : If God is a stone, I will worship a
mountain.' He refers to the myriad stone images of Hindu
idolatry. Namdev (born a.d. 1'270) preached impressively
against stone idols.
No better than the formalism of Hindu sectarian religion
comes off worldly, unspiritual Moslemism. Nanak says :
The Qazi sitteth to administer justice ;
He turneth over his beads and invoketh God.

But he taketh bribes and doeth injustice.
If called to account he will read and cite texts.
»
Cf. Bohtlingk, Indische Spruche, 4376, 4873.
Even-handed justice is dealt out to both religions. Just

as their formalism, superstition, or corruption is derided
and execrated, so the essential truth in both is the same.
Saith the Granth :
Some men are Hindus and some are Mussulmans the Creator ; . . .
and the Beneficent are the same the Temple and the Mosque are
;
. . .
the same; Allah and Alakh (Sanskrit Alaksa, 'Without Attribute')

. . .
are the same the Purans and the Quran are the same
; they are all alike, ;
it is One God who created all.

The thousands of Purans and Mohammedan books tell that in reality
there is but one principle.
To one who is acquainted with India's religious past, the

conditions under which operated the thought of Nanak's
time are very transparent. Many centuries before Nanak
the Upanishads had made nought of all religious works and
forms, not expressly, but by a kind of implication which lost
no eloquence through its silence. In the place of all prac-
tice it had put the One True Being, of which every living
thing is a part, and salvation from the round of existence
(samsara, transmigration) through fusion with the One.
As time went by, this monism was touched up monotheis-
tically ever since the day of Yajnavalkya and his wife
;
Maitreyi transcendental theoretic monism keeps shaping

itself over in practice into mystic longing of the creature to
become fused with the One. This is bhakti, 'love of God,'
found with every Brahmanical sect and every Brahman -
ical philosophy. It is the eclectic philosophical thecscphy
of the Bhagavatglta, the 'Song of the Exalted One,' the
type of belief which had become common property in
Nanak's time a Creator has created the world and its
:
beings through a kind of "fake" process. Most of it is

maya, 'illusion.' The world and its beings are not of him;
they are aside from him. Only one thing is excepted,
namely, the soul of man. That soul is, in reality, the soul
^
of the Creator ; fervid devotion to the Creator finally
results in fusion with him, which is salvation.
^
So the Bhagat Ravidas :
Between Thee and me, between me and Thee, what difference can there be ?
The same as between gold and the bracelet, between water and its ripples.
Such, then, is the very unoriginal theosophic basis of

Sikhism. It is an ideal which wavers between chilly, abstract
monistic pantheism, on the one hand and perfervid an-;
thropomorphic theism, in the manner of the Christian

INIystics, on the other hand. I can easily gather from Nanak's
hymns support for both ends of this line. At one time he
says "The
:
imperceptible God was Himself the speaker and
preacher Himself; unseen. He was Everything." At another
time he insists that God is a Being who must be longed for
as a bride longs for the bridegroom, or, must be approached
and loved as a fond and faithful wife loves her spouse.
Like every other Hindu sect, the Sikhs believed in trans-
migration. Escape from its toils can be accomplished only
by fusion with Akal Purukh (Sanskrit Akala Purusa),
the 'Timeless Spirit.' Paradise or heaven (Sach Khand)
is but a temporary reward it does not make immune to
;
transmigration, suffering, fear, and the long train of life's

evils.
"
What is hell and what heaven, the wretched places ? "
exclaims Kabir, one of Nanak's predecessors; "the saints
have rejected them both. God and Kabir have become
one ; no one can distinguish between them." And Nanak
says (i. 159) :
The Guru's word is speech of nectar ; by drinking it man becometh

acceptable.
When man performeth service at God's gate to obtain a sight of Him,
what careth he for paradise ?
The names or designations of the Creator, or the funda-

mental power, vary between ancient personal designations
borrowed from the sectarian Pantheon, and ancient philo-
sophical abstractions. God is spoken of plainly as Krishna
Govind, Rama, Brahma, and, above all, Hari. This is one
mood. On the other hand, he is Paramesur (Paramegvara),
'Supreme Lord'; Sunn (Cunya), 'The Solitary'; Alakh
(Alaksa), 'Without Quality'; Akal (Akala), 'Timeless';
Cf. Angelus Silesius (cited in my Religion of the Veda, p. 275, note) :

—
Ich bin so gross wie Gott,
Er ist wie ich so klein ;
Ich kann nicht unter ihm,

Er liber mir nicht sein.
Akshar (Aksara), 'Imperishable' Purukh (Purusa), 'World-

;
' ' '
Man, or World-Soul very frequently combined, Akal

;
Purukh, 'Timeless Soul.' But the favorite and most ec-

static Sikh expression for the Divine is simply 'Name.' It
is employed almost cabalistically. At the head of Nanak's
hvmns stand the words Sat Nam, "True Name.' The Guru
was asked why this was so. He replied "The Name is the :
God of all Gods. Some propitiate Durga, some Shiv, some

Ganesh, and some other Gods but the Guru's Sikhs worship
;
the True Name and thus remove all obstacles to salvation."

We are reminded on the one hand of the name of Allah ' '
;
' '
on the other, of thousand-named Vishnu likely enough :
this feature reflects Mohammedan influence (cf. Amos vi.
10).
In the pure Hindu philosophies and in Buddhism man's
destiny is governed by karma, 'deed.' The key-note is
struck at a very early time. So the 'Great Forest-Upani-
shad' (4. 4. 3), one of the earliest theosophic tracts of India :
"Man altogether desire (kama) ; as is his desire so is his

is
insight (kratu) ; as is his insight so is his deed (karma) ;
as is his deed so is his destiny." Man's acts attach themselves

to the soul and determine its next abode in the course of its
migrations. So also Nanak :
Impute not blame to any one, but rather to thine own karma.
I have suffered the consequences of my acts I may blame no one else.
;
In the Sikh writings the karma is generally construed as

sinister, as 'evil deed,' manmukh karm (Sanskrit manomusa
karma). This comprises the ordinary human sins. The
karma that elevates character and insures rebirth as a higher
being, even a god, is rather ignored. In common use karma
gets to mean sin committed in a previous existence that —
and nothing more.
Another, less ancient idea, which at a comparatively
early time entangles the Hindu mind in a paradox, takes
the place of the more philosophical karma. It is the idea
of fate or decree (Sanskrit daivam).^ So the distinguished
See Professor Winternitz's interesting paper, Das Schicksal im Glauben und

'
'
Denken der Inder,' Allgemeine Zeitung, May 3d and 5th, 1902.

Sanskrit poet Bhartrhari, in his famous Centuries of Lyric

^
Stanzas :
The wise Creator wrote upon thy brow.

When thou wast born what wealth should once be thine;
The sum was great perhaps or small yet now ;
Thy fate is fixed, and sure the law divine.
For if thou dwell within the desert's rim,

Thou shalt have nothing less than is his will ;
Nor will there more apportioned be to him

That hastes to Meru's gold-abounding hill.
In the same spirit says Nanak :
The die is cast, no one can undo it.
What know I of the future's

happening ?
Whate'er pleases Him, that hath occurred ;
No one but Him doth act.
Ravidas boldly denies free will :
Were I not to sin, O Timeless Spirit !
How could thy name be Purifier of Sinners ?
In practice the Sikhs throughout their secular history are

quite as fatalistic as the Mohammedans, and up to a certain
point their fatalism contributed to their political success.
Here, again, there is no new doctrine, and nothing that the
rest of the Hindu people of the time disavowed or hesitated
to apply when they were so minded. If, after all this, it is
plainly impossible to find anything that is at the same time
important and new in Sikh theology, we may inquire whether

the renovating factor of Sikhism is contained in its institu-
tions, rather than in its spiritual doctrines. For, after all,
Sikhism was a new religion, which offered real shelter to many,
and in time fitted its adherents to become successful oppo-
nents of the followers of Islam in the North of India.
Nearly two thousand years before Nanak's time. Bud-
dhism had negated and abolished caste through the inherent
quality of its teaching. But Buddhism had passed out of
the peninsula of India, and caste controlled non-Islamic
India. In the light of the monistic high thought of India,
*
See Ryder, Woman's Eyes, p. 2-t.
which postulates the identity of all men's souls with the

One, caste has always been a perplexing paradox as well as
a corrosive institution. Ramakrishna, the modern saint, or
Paramahansa, knows this, and is willing to share a bone with
a dog, his brother. ^ But, of course, as a good Hindu, he
recognizes that this is only for the Emancipate in ordinary ;
life he admits the need of caste.^ There is a great difference

between occasional academic protest, and the express,
sincere invective against caste in the Sikhs' Gurus' utter-
ances. In that Mohammedan time, in that INIoslemic coun-
try, the disavowal of caste was the irreducible minimum of
concession which a new Hindu religion must make before it
could hope to succeed. With the Gurus' revived and in-
tensified sense that all men depend upon the 'Name,' and
are alike an efliux from the 'Timeless Spirit,' the wooden-
ness and cruelty of caste, as practised by the Hindu sects,
became a conviction, sincere, fiery, polemical at the same ;
time it enabled the Sikhs to compete successfully with Mo-

hammedanism. The Gurus attacked the caste system and,
at the same time, other Hindu notions of impurity in many
necessary and harmless acts of ordinary life :
Castes are names are folly

folly, ;
All creatures have one shelter (God).
Thus Nanak most immediate

states in simplest words the
consequence of his Before Nanak,
knowledge of the Divine.
the Bhagats Ramanand, Kabir, Namdev, and Ravidas had
all arrived at the same conclusion.
In various other ways also Sikhism pointed the way to
freedom from galling, cruel Hindu practice and superstition,
and to saner and cleaner life. The Gurus forbid idolatry,
widow-burning, infanticide, pilgrimages to the sacred rivers
and tanks they preach philanthropy, justice, truth, and
;
domestic virtue. Indeed, the theory of their religion is well-

nigh a counsel of perfection. And yet it is doubtful whether
all this accounts for the rapid spread of the teachings of the
Gurus and their development into a religious system which
^
Ramakrishna, His Life and Sayings (edited by Max Miiller), p. 122.
"
Ibid., pp. 146, 147.
form marks off the Sikhs from the rest of the Hindu
in its final
world, not only as a religious body, but as a people of singular
character and individuality. Into the making of Sikhism
another ancient Hindu institution has entered as a very im-
portant factor perhaps we may say the prime factor.
:
The name Sikh (Sanskrit Qisya) means 'disciple' the name ;
Guru, 'teacher.' The Sikh texts, as a rule, speak of the

Gurus and their Sikhs, that is, the 'Teachers and their Dis-
'
ciples or, even more compactly, of the Gurus' Sikhs, the

;
'Teachers' Disciples.' The relation of teacher and pupil in

India has always been pious, sentimental, and sacramental.
The so-called 'House-Books' (Grhya-sutras) show that the
initiation (upanayana) of an Aryan Brahmanical boy was
an affair of very considerable solemnity.^ Teacher and pupil
"
stand in front of the sacred fire. The pupil begins, I
have come to study ; receive me, let me be thy pupil, incited
thereunto by God Savitar" (the god who incites to piety).
The teacher replies, "Who art thou, what is thy name.'^"
"My name is Devadatta." The teacher then says, "May I,
O God Savitar, fulfil my purpose with this boy Devadatta."
Like an apprentice in the time of the guilds the boy lives with
his teacher, serves, and obeys him. Mornings and evenings
he gathers wood for his fire, and begs alms for him, beginning
his begging tour with his own mother. When the teacher
addresses the pupil while the latter is seated, he must rise
before he makes answer if the pupil is on his feet, he must
;
run up to the teacher and answer.

Beyond this external formalism a tenderer bond unites
the two. In the course of the initiation the teacher touches
the heart of the boy and pronounces these solemn words,
"Thy heart shall dwell in my heart; thy spirit shall follow
my spirit; with willing ears hear my words." After a long
term of study the young man graduates, with various so-
lemnities, which include a sacramental bath. Then he goes
by the name of Snataka, 'Bathed.' In the Taittirlya-
Upanishad the Snataka is bidden to speak the truth always ;
to cultivate the study of the Veda to perform his duties as

;
a householder and to honor parents and teacher like unto

;
gods.
^
See Hillebrandt, Alt-Indien, pp. 100 ff.
The teacher remains a sacred person he is the typical

;
"Reverend," and, even more than parents, the pivot around

which turn all lessons that inculcate reverence. The ancient
Law-Book of Apastamba (1. 1. 13) has it "He from whom
:
the pupil gathers (acinoti) the knowledge of his duties is called

teacher (acarya) . Him he must never offend. For he causes
his pupil to be born a second time by imparting to him the
sacred knowledge. Father and mother produce the body
only." The association of the idea of spiritual fatherhood
remains a permanent factor of Hindu thought and senti-
ment. The name 'Twice-born,' that is, 'Regenerate,' be-
longs to high-caste Brahmanical Hindus precisely because
they are in duty bound to get from a teacher their new birth
through knowledge of sacred things. The relation of teacher
and pupil is not weakened by time, nor cloyed by familiarity ;
the responsibility of the pupil towards the teacher holds
through life. "He who, though able, does not support his
mother, his aged father, his true wife, his not grown-up
child, his Brahman Teacher, and any one that comes to him
for protection, dead is he, even though he breathe." So says
the Bhagavata Purana (10. 45. 7). With the systematic
rigor of a sort of proverb, the Mahabharata fixes the position
of the Teacher among the five very most important persons
and things in all the world: "Five sacred (fires) must be
tended with unremitting care father, mother, the (actual
:
sacred) fire, one's own self, and one's teacher" (Mahabh.

5. 33. 74).
It is easy to see that the word "teacher," instead of imply-
ing merely a person who imparts, for a consideration, more or
less useful knowledge, has assumed the high value of spirit-
ual guide and superior. In its final outcome, in the view of
Hindus who are interested in the burning question of their
ultimate destiny, who crave the uniciue salvation which is
fusion with the Absolute One, the Guru is the John the Bap-
tist who heralds the great event, and the guide who points
the way to that great event. "As when going to a strange
country, one must abide by the directions of him who knows
the way, while taking the advice of many may lead to con-
fusion, so in trying to reach God one should follow the single
Guru who knows the way to God." So saith the modern
saint and ascetic, theParamahansa Ramakrishna, and he con-

tinues :
The Guru is a mediator. He brings man and God together.
The note, too, of papal infallibility is struck exigently :
The disciple should never criticise his own Guru. He must implicitly
obey whatever his Guru says.
As a Bengali proverb has it,
Though my Guru may visit tavern and still.
My Guru is holy Rai Nityananda still.^

After all this, it is hardly necessary to say that Brahmanical
literature in endless iteration condemns violence to teachers
as one of the deadly sins. In the history of ethics the Hindu
conception of the relation of Teacher and Disciple stands
out as one of the most perfect and sensitive conceptions,
removed alike from selfishness and loosely attached altruism,
and is entirely fit to be regarded as the final test of Hindu
ethical feeling and practice.
It seems to me that the most distinctive feature in Sikhism
is the development of this time-honored relation between
individual teacher and individual pupil into an ecclesiastico-
political force, which finally led up to a sort of church-state,
and a sort of nation. It is easy to see how a single teacher
of very holy repute might gather about him many pupils
who would feel and show such veneration as is implanted
in every Hindu by his own intrinsic spirituality and by im-
memorial tradition. Pupils in larger mass might shower
presents upon the teacher, put into his hands the means for
luxurious and courtly living, surround his person with watch-
ful care against envious detractors and personal enemies,
and finally, as it were, press upon him a pontificate not at
all wanting in temporal or secular advantages. This is pre-
cisely what happened in Sikhism.
The legends of the Gurus are still to be sifted for the per-
haps not too numerous grains of real history which they with-
out doubt contain. One thing is quite certain, namely, that
®
See Ramakrishna, pp. 132, 133.
the early Gurus were simple, modest men without any per-
sonal aspirations. Nanak, the first Guru, was a travelling
fakir ;
he was not a priest either by birth or education. His
sole claim to notice and distinction was that he was possessed
of a high grade of deistic emotionalism. The unity of God
and the need of righteousness were the two unoriginal and
not altogether consanguineous propositions which he had to
offer his followers. He travelled from place to place and
chanted his hymns of praise to the lute of a player, by the
name of Mardana, who accompanied him in his travels. He
was one of those gentle, pitiful, messianic Hindu teachers,
anxious to steer suffering and superstitious humanity across
the ocean of individual, divided existence to the haven of
union with the One. Yajnavalkya and Buddha are his
ancient prototypes the Bhagats that preceded him, his
;
direct teachers. Nevertheless the note of Guruship as well

as that of apostolic succession is struck in the legend of
Nanak. He
exacted obedience from his adherents. He
passed his pontificate over the heads of his own unsteady
and disobedient sons to a disciple whom he had put through
the severest tests of obedience. The story has it that he
made Angad, his successor, eat of a corpse and do other re-
pulsive things in order to see how stout was Angad's faith
in Nanak's Guruship, When Nanak's end approached, he
placed the umbrella of spiritual sovereignty over Angad's
head and bowed to him as the future Guru. In his last
moments Nanak drew a sheet over himself and blended his
light with Guru Angad. The Guru remained the same.
Hereafter all Gurus are Nanak —
a sort of composite pho-
tography. And it is curious to observe that Nanak is in
ecstatic moments really identified with the Timeless Spirit
— an extreme but not unlogical conclusion.
The second and third Gurus, Angad and Amardas, con-
tinued the pontificate as humble teachers, obscure heads of
one of the sects that kept springing up mushroom-like in those
days among the Hindus, as a rule to be lost in some new
form of religious emotionalism. But the fourth Guru began
to accumulate wealth and exhibit power. The gifts of the
Disciples flowed so freely that he was able to start building
the gorgeous temple of Hari (Hari-mandar), in the middle of
the lake called 'Nectar-Lake,' or Amritsar, and so lay the

foundation of this most famous sanctuary, which became
in due time the Mekka of Sikh religion and nationality. His
work was completed by the fifth Guru, Arjan.
This last-mentioned pontiff compiled the Adi Granth, to
which he himself contributed a large part, thus furnishing
the Disciples with a bible, and the world with one of its most
noteworthy theistic documents. Next to Nanak, Arjan was
the most spiritual of the Sikh pontiffs. But Arjan was econo-
mist and statesman as well as shepherd and churchman. He
instituted most significant economic and secular reforms.
He substituted for the free gifts of the Disciples definite
taxation, and in his last will and testament ordered his son
and successor in the Guruship to sit fully armed on his throne,
and to maintain an army. Arjan died a cruel death, pre-
sumably through the machinations of a personal enemy by
the name of Chandu, minister of finance at Delhi, whose
daughter he did not think good enough to accept in marriage
for his son, Har Govind. Furthermore, as stated above
(p. 171), he had exposed himself to Emperor Jahangir's wrath
by giving aid and comfort to his fugitive, rebellious son,
Khusrau. That the Sikh Guru and his numerous devoted
adherents had by that time become an important political
factor in the Mogul empire, and that the Guru pontificate had
become an object of suspicion to the Mogul emperors, the
story shows very clearly.
The sixth Guru, Har Govind, followed the political in-
tentions and the expressed wishes of his father and prede-
cessor. The old simple insignia of Guruship were the seli,
a woollen cord worn as a necklace, and the turban. These
Har Govind exchanged something much more regal
for :
"My seli shall be a sword-belt, and I shall wear my turban

with a royal aigrette," he exclaimed to his old adviser Bhai
Budha. He also carried two swords as emblems of both
spiritual and temporal authority. He celebrated his ac-
cession by a large banquet given to his Sikhs. He issued
an encyclical letter to the tax collectors (masands) in which
he said, significantly, that he should be pleased with those
who brought arms and horses instead of money. He built
a magnificent throne-house of solid stone masonry, the so-
called Akal Bunga, and took his seat in it. He enrolled as

his bodyguard fifty-two heroes, to which were added five
hundred youths, to each of whom he gave a horse and arms.
This force he organized under centurion captains of a hundred
horse each. To while away his time, he devoted himself to
the chase.
Chandu, the traducer became very uneasy at
of his father,
this exhibition of power. Again he offered his daughter to
Har Govind in marriage, but Har Govind refused, saying :
"The torture that thou didst inflict on such a peaceful and

philanthropicGuru as my father must bring its vengeance
in time. Thou shalt die trodden in the dust, and dishonored
by shoe-beatings inflicted by Pariahs." Chandu then re-
newed his machinations against the Sikhs, and managed to
have Har Govind cited to the dangerous presence of Emperor
Jahangir at Delhi. But Sikh influence had by that time
grown strong at court, and Har Govind's personality was
very attractive. After some danger and vicissitudes the
tables turned themselves on Chandu, so that he was delivered
into the power of Har Govind. Between the lines of the
Sikh legend we can read that the Guru wreaked terrible
vengeance on Chandu. He committed him to the care of
two faithful Sikhs who "took off his turban, tied his hands
behind his back, and showered blows of slippers on his de-
voted head. While being thus castigated, he was led through
the streets of the city, a warning to all men." Chandu's
wife and son were also surrendered to the Guru, who punished
them by showing them Chandu "made over to Pariahs as
if he were a dog." Dirt and filth continued to be poured
on him, and he was reduced to a condition in which no one
could recognize him. After showing them that, he let them
go. Naively, the legend says, "everybody congratulated the
Guru on the mercy he had shown them." The Guru after-
wards took Chandu to Lahore, the scene of his father's death.
Here he was delivered over to scavengers, who led him round
the streets to beg. "He who used to take bribes of thousands
of rupees was now glad to get kauris and the leavings of others
for his support. For a sacrificial mark on his forehead he
had now the marks of shoe-beatings, and for necklaces of
pearls and diamonds he had old slippers suspended from hi.s
neck." After fifteen days of this treatment in Lahore, death

at the hand of one of the Guru's enraged Sikhs came to his
rehef scavengers threw his body into the river Ravi. But
;
the Guru prayed, characteristically, that as Chandu had

suffered torment for his sins in this life, God would pardon
him hereafter.
The Sikh legend does not cover up the fact that Har
Govind had become a powerful, power-craving, ostentatious,
pleasure-loving potentate who was rather given to larding
his worldly acts with the pious sayings of his more spiritual
predecessors. His love for the chase was so great as to in-
volve him in war with the next Grand Mogul, Shah Jehan.
A white hawk of the Emperor, which had been presented to
him by the King of Iran, had made its way into the Guru's
hunting camp, and his huntsmen refused to return it to the
Emperor. This brought about a war which ended, so the
Sikh story goes, in a bloody but glorious victory of the Sikhs
over the Mohammedans near Amritsar in 1628. There is no
reason to doubt that the Sikhs had become by that time a
nation within a nation, or a landless empire within an empire.
Bhai Gur Das, a contemporary of the fourth, fifth, and
sixth Gurus, composed an analysis of the tenets of the Sikh
religion in which, of course, much emphasis is given to the
functions of the Guru and the true relation between the
Guru and his Sikhs :
By the Guru's hymns the mind is satisfied, and man reaches his owti
home.
By the Guru's instruction the four castes were blended into one society
of saints.
The true Guru, the real king, putteth the holy on the high road to sal-
vation. He restraineth the deadly sins, evil inclinations, and worldly
love. By the spell of the Name he hath inculcated love, devotion, charity.
As the lotus remaineth dry in the water, so doth the Guru keep the holy
man unaffected by the world.
He who seeks not the Guru is blind, even though he have eyes. He
who listeneth not to the Guru's words is deaf, even though he have ears.
He who singeth not the Guru's hymns is dumb, even though he have a
tongue. Even though he who smelleth not the perfume of the Guru's
feet have a nose, it is as if it were cut off. He who doeth not the Guru's
work, even though he have hands, is without them, and waileth in sorrow.
He in whose heart the Guru's instruction abideth not, is without under-
standing, and obtaineth not entrance into God's court.
I believe that the preceding exposition has laid bare the

mainspring of Sikhism, so that no one need fail to see it.
Let me point out once more that on the side of doctrine or
philosophy Sikhism contains absolutely nothing new, noth-
ing that is not to be found elsewhere, in some place, at some
time, in India. As regards institutions and minor folk be-
liefs, Guru Arjan claims that,
The egg of superstition hath burst the mind is illumined,

;
The Guru hath cut the fetters off the feet and freed the captive.
We have seen that such is the case as regards many perni-

cious Hindu institutions, but there can be no doubt that this
result was quickly overtaken by a new growth of somewhat
dubious quality, such as fatalism, brigandage, and exceeding
worldliness, thinly veiled by pious wordiness. The truly
potent element in Sikhism is euhemeristic. Some years
ago I pointed out, not at all originally, that "the impressive
object-lesson of superiority, physical or spiritual, may make a
god of a tribal chief, a Roman emperor, or a Hindu ascetic."*
We know that there are in India to this day leading preachers
of the Brahma, so holy, so sanctifying in character and ex-
ample, that their canonization by popular consent as Para-
mahansas, 'Supreme Spirits,' comes dangerously near to iden-
tifying them with the Divinity. This is, when we ponder
it, exactly on all fours with the monistic Brahma. The truly
new thing in Sikhism is the surcharging of this euhemerism
with temporal, practical, and finally political factors. For
once, under the stress of the irksome Mohammedan environ-
ment, the Hindus were led to recoin the ancient institution
of spiritual Guruship into militant leadership a thing —
not dreamt of before in India. This enabled them to gain
a new station in the despised world, after their former sta-
tion had become, paradoxically speaking, so despicable that
they could no longer endure it. Sikhism reformed stridently
and effectively some of the blatant abuses of Hindu religious
practice, yet remained at the core an essentially Hindu re-
ligion. The really new idea was the fighting, euhemeristi-
cally deified Guru and his fighting Sikhs. But for the Sikhs,
'See my article, 'The Symbolic Gods,' in Studies in Honor of B. L. Gildersleeve,
p. 38.
all or most might have been Mohammedanized or,

of India ;
at least, Mohammedan failure in this respect is probably

due in a considerable measure to Sikh resistance. In this
way this errant child of Hinduism has contributed largely
to the preservation of Hinduism. It would seem as if —
that service done —
the jaded child were at last returning
to thebosom of its aged but not yet altogether decrepit
mother. The Sikhs are now reverting, to some extent, to
Hinduism, and are again worshipping Hindu gods in Hindu
temples.
Baltimore,
January, 1911.
YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES
George Aaron Barton
Bryn Mawr College
There is no more fascinating problem in the whole field

of the history of religion than the origin and development
of the worship of Yahweh. Within the last few years new
facts concerning have been brought to light, and various
it
and somewhat conflicting theories have arisen to explain

them. It is the purpose of the present paper to examine,
sift, and coordinate the most important of these facts and
theories.
We may begin with a reference to the theory that Yahweh
was of origin, though this view has been discussed so
Kenite
often of recent years that it is unnecessary to enter fully
^
into it here. It was
suggested by Ghillany
first in 1862,
was supported by Tiele,^ strongly urged by Stade,^ more
fully worked out by Budde,^ and has been accepted by
Guthe,^ H. P. Smith,^ Wildeboer,^ Cheyne,^ Paton,^ and
Burney.^" The present writer has twice expressed his ad-
hesion to it,^^ and Addis accepts it as a possibility.^^ The
reasons for accepting it have been succinctly stated by Budde,
Paton, and the writer, and need not be repeated here. They
follow from the prevailing Pentateuchal documentary theory,
Theologische Briefe an die Gebildeten der deutschen Nation, 1. 216, 408.

1
Vergelijkende Geschiedenis van de Egyptische en Mesopotamische Gods-

2
diensten, p. 559.
^
Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1. 130 f. ; Biblische Theologie, pp. 42 f.
*
Religion of Israel to the Exile, chapter i.
^ ^
Geschichte des Volkes Israel, pp. 21, 29. Old Testament History, p. 57.
'
Jahvedienst en Volksreligie in Israel, pp. 15 f.
» ^
Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 3208. Biblical World, 28. 116 f.
10
Journal of Theological Studies, 9. 337 S.
" Semitic
Origine, pp. 272 f., 275 f., and Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible in
One Volume, p. 410.
12
Hebrew Religion to the Establishment of Judaism under Ezra, p. 70.
187
188 YAHWEH BEFORE MOSES
so that from the Biblical evidence as thus understood this
formerly seemed the only natural hypothesis.
Several new theories have, however, been urged in recent
years, two of which are based on facts outside the Old Testa-
ment. These have been thought to challenge or overthrow
the Kenite hypothesis. If they really do so, that theory
should be reexamined or discarded.
The first of these theories is based upon the belief that the
name Yahweh has been found on Babylonian tablets of
the time of Hammurabi or earlier. The occurrence of such
names was first announced by Professor Sayce,^^ but the
announcement did not attract attention until Professor
Delitzsch delivered the famous lecture which started the
'Babel und Bibel' controversy.^^ He brought into prom-
inence two names, Yawa-ilu ^^ and Yaum-ilu,^^ claiming
the first to be equal to Yahweh-el and the second to Joel.
Many scholars accepted the latter name as probably rep-
resenting Yahweh,'^ but the first one was doubted, not
only because the sign read wa might be read pi, but because
in the hundreds of names in the Old Testament in which
Yahweh is the first element, this element is always con-
tracted to Yo or Y'ho.^^ More recently it has been thought
to be proved that Delitzsch misread the name Yawa-ilu and
that it should be read Yapi-ilu.^® This view is based on the
discovery of a name Ya-pa-ilu in a tablet of the same period.
^'^
It is not, however, quite certain that this disproves the pres-

ence of the divine name Yahweh, for Johns has pointed out
that if we take labe,^^ the pronunciation of the Tetragram-
maton to which Theodoret testifies, as a starting point, the
Babylonian divine name lb may come into comparison.
" 9. 522. Cf. Hommel, ibid. 10. 42.
Expository Times,
" See his Babel and Bible, translated by Johns, pp. 70 S.
Spelled Ya-a-wa-ilu, in Cuneiform Texts, 8. 20. 3a, and Ya-wa-ilu, ibid. 34. 4a.
15
In each case the sign read wa might be read pi, making Yapi-ilu.
1^
See Cuneiform Texts, 4. 27. 3a. The m is apparently the well-known mimma-
tion.
" So, for example, A. T. Clay, Light on the Bible from Babel, pp. 236 f., and
Kogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 92 ff.
18
See Clay, op. cit., pp. 236 and 239. " So Clay, Amurru,
p. 207.
^^
See Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, 8. no. 16. 39.
21
labe was really pronounced Yahwe. This does not affect the fact that b, p,
and m all may represent in Babylonian the Hebrew waw.
GEORGE AARON BARTON 189
One individual at Dilbat was named ilu-Ib-ilu-Iau, i.e. 'the

god lb is ray god Yau.'
^^
The god lb was then identified
with Yau, who was perhaps Yahu or Yahweh. It has been
demonstrated that in Babylonian p, b, and m all interchanged
with wawP If laba was, as Johns suggests, one of the Baby-
lonian ways of expressing Yahweh, this may also have been
expressed in Babylonian writing by Yapa. In that case the
name of Yapa-ilu referred to above, so far from disproving
Professor Delitzsch's contention that Yawa-ilu or Yapi-ilu
contains the divine name Yahweh as its first element, would
actually confirm it.
It must be confessed, however, that this identity is very
uncertain. While it may be that all three forms Yawa,
Yaba, and Yapa represent an original Yahweh,^^ that it really
was so is not yet proven.
When Yahweh as the first element of a personal name was
written in cuneiform in the Persian period, it was sometimes
written 'Ya-,' sometimes 'Yau-,' and sometimes 'Yahu.'^^
If we may reason that the same varieties of phonetic ex-
pression existed in the time of the first dynasty of Babylon,

we should find the name Yahweh as the first element in the
names Yahi-ilu ^^ and Yauhi-ilu -" which occur in texts from
Dilbat. This would add another group of occurrences of
this name in Babylonian texts of this period and also another
to the forms under which it appears.
fact that in tablets of the Kassite period the name
The
Yau-bani ^^ occurs, has been urged as a reason for supposing
that these forms, or at least some of them, represent the
^
Cambridge Biblical Essays, p. 49.
^ ^'^ is turned
E.g., Hebrew into Assyrio-Babylonian as lamu, labu, and lapH
(Talm. ^"h, Syriac Vwd, Arabic lawa; in Ethiopic the form in the simple stem has be-
come lawawa, but in the reflexive talaweya the original form of the root appears) Cf . .
Delitzsch, Assyrisches Handworterbuch, pp. 368, 379, and Brockelmann, Vergleich-

ende Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, pp. 139, 140.
^ Daiches, Zeitschrift fiir
Assyriologie, 22. 126, declares that the Tetragram-
maton is never found in the cuneiform.
" See
Clay, Light on the Old Testament from Babel, pp. 236 ff., and Babylonian
Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, 9. no. 25. 1. 19; no. 28. 1. 15; no.
45. 1. 1 ; no. 55. lines 1, 14; 10. no. 77. 1. 3.
^*
Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmaler, 7. no. 5. 27.
" Ibid. no. 8. 3, 5, 8 ; no. 9. 39.
^^
Cf. Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, 15. no. 184.
1. 7; no. 200. col. i. 1. 37; col. ii. lines 16, 25.
divine name Yahweh. This name (Yau-bani) is parallel

to Bel-bani, in which 'Bel' is certainly a divine element.
The natural inference is therefore that Yau represents
a divine name. If such a god was known in Babylonia in
the Kassite period, this would strengthen the presumption
that the names which we have passed in review from the
time of Hammurabi's dynasty contain it also.
It has been contended that the name Yahweh as an ele-

ment in a proper name
occurs in Babylonia still earlier. In
a text published by Thureau-Dangin, a granddaughter of
the king Naram-Sin bears a name which may be read Lipush-
laum,-^ 'May laum
make.' Radau,^° Burney,^^ and Clay^^
all regard an occurrence of Yahweh. Rogers ^^
this as
with more caution holds that it is doubtful, and that possibly
Ea is referred to. It would certainly be rash to assert that
this name is proof that Yahweh as a divine name was known
among the immediate descendants of Naram-Sin, but it is
clearly possible that such may be the case. As Zimmern has
noted (Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 468, ed. 3),
these names in which Yahweh appears to occur in Babylonia
are all borne by foreigners. In reality we cannot be sure
that these Babylonian names refer to a god at all until we
find such names as Arad-Ya, Arad-Yau, Arad-Yama, Arad-
Yaba, Arad-Yapa, in which the last element is preceded by
the determinative for god.^^ In the absence of decisive
evidence, however, a presumption that they contain a
divine name has been established, and some probability
that that divine element is identical with the divine name
which we know as Yahweh.
In addition to these Babylonian occurrences, it is thought
that the name Yahweh occurs in the name Akhi-yami,
which is, as the Murashu texts show, the Babylonian way
of writing Ahijah. The name occurs on a tablet found at
^^
See the Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academic des Inscriptions et Belles
Lettres, 1899, p. 348, pi. 1. The reading laum is not altogether certain. / is
^^
expressed by an unusual sign. Early Babylonian History, p. 173.
^1 '^
Journal of Theological Studies, 9. 342. Amurru, p. 90.
^
Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 94, n. 1.
^ Such names as Arad-ya-um (Babylonian Expedition, 15. no. 120. 1. 2) and
Arad-ya-u {ibid. 17. no. 48. 1, 9) do not fulfil this condition, as they lack the
determinative.
Taanach which was written between 1400 and 1300 b.c.^^

It has long been supposed that Yahweh is the first element
in the name of Yau-bi'di, a king of Hamath^^ who wâs over-
thrown by Sargon II., and it has been supposed that the
presence of these names and Syria as well as in
in Palestine
Babylonia is
proof that the divine name Yahweh was not
the peculiar possession of Israel, but belonged also to widely
scattered Semites.^'' Of course the same uncertainty attaches
to the names Yau-bi'di and Akhi-yama as to the names pre-
viously discussed but in case the name Yahweh is really
;
represented in these forms, how are we to account for its

presence ?
The analogy of the use of other divine names among the
Semites would lead us to look for the explanation in the use
of some common epithet, rather than in the worship of the
same deity. Thus it has long been recognized that the names
Ishtar, Ashtar, Attar, Athtar, Astar, Ashtart, and Ash-
toreth found in the various parts of the Semitic world are
the same name, and that they are applied to deities so nearly
alike that the epithet in which the name originated was ap-
propriate, but that the deities were not identical.^^ Athtar,
worshipped in South Arabia, had no relationship to Ashtart,
worshipped at Sidon, except the kinship due to a common,
though far-away, origin. Similarly the term Baal, applied
so often to Canaanite gods, is kindred to Bel, which was
applied to Babylonian deities. The deities were not, how-
ever, identical. Thus also Shamash, worshipped at Agade,
Shamash, worshipped at Larsa, Shemesh, worshipped at Beth-
Shemesh, and Shams, a goddess worshipped in South
Arabia,^^ bear the same name, but are clearly not identical.
all
Analogy would accordingly lead us to suppose that a divine

name which apparently was used in Babylonia in the time
of Hammurabi, in the Kassite period, and possibly in the
family of Naram-Sin, also at Taanach, at Hamath, and
among the Kenites of the peninsula of Sinai, as well as by
the Hebrews, was, like these other names, an epithet that
35
See SelHn's Tell Ta annek, p. 115, no. 2. 2 and p. 121. no. 2. 2.
3°
See e.g. Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 66 (3d ed.).
'^
So Rogers, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 95.
^^
See e.g. Hebraica, 10. 68, and the writer's Semitic Origins, chapter
iii.
^*
Cf. Mordtmann and Miiller's Sabaische Denkmaler, no. 13.
could be applied to different gods —
deities which may have
had a common origin and similar characteristics, but which
were not identical. No one can study Semitic religion com-
prehensively without being impressed with the fact that all
native Semitic deities are in origin closely connected with
the primitive Ishtars. In some instances the goddess her-
self seems to have turned into a masculine deity, as in the
case of Athtar in South Arabia in some instances the god
;
who in primitive times was Ishtar's son has assumed a posi-

tion superior to Ishtar or independent of her and in some ;
instances the gods or spirits who in the primitive polyan-

drous society were thought of as Ishtar's loosely married
husbands, have undergone a development more or less inde-
pendent of the goddess herself.'*" As Semitic tribes migrated
and settled in new environments, their deities naturally took
on many new functions or attributes from the new surround-
ings. As empires brought different tribes or cities into
political unity,pantheons were formed, and in course of time
special functions were assigned to different gods but in the ;
case of many deities, and these the most prominent, one can
stilltrace, in the characteristics of the god, in the hymns that
are sung to him, or in elements of his ritual, the marks of his
former history. In the case of the prominent Semitic gods,
the predominant common feature is the element of fertility,
accentuated in the fashion peculiar to the Semites. This
feature is the link connecting these deities with their common
source. This source was common in the sense that the
different tribes were moulded by a similar environment and
developed similar social and religious institutions, not that
all the gods were descended from one goddess and her
polyandrous family.
There are features connected with the worship of Yahweh
in Israel and conceptions concerning him which clearly
connect him with this common Semitic source. He was the
god of fertility, the god who 'opened the womb ';^^ to him
an oath was taken by putting the hand 'under the thigh.' ^^
" See the writer's Semitic Origins, pp. 87, 125 ff., 133 ff., 190 ff., 289 S. Biblical ;
Worid, 24. 169. n. 3 Paton, American Journal of Semitic Languages, 19. 57.
;
^1
Cf. Genesis xxi.x. 31, xxx. 22, xlix. 25 ; Exodus xiii. 2; Psalm cxxvii. 3; etc.
^ Genesis xxiv. 9.
Yahweh's autumn festival was preceded by a wailing, which

was probably a survival of an earlier wailing for the son of
the old mother goddess, variously called Tammuz, Adonis,
and Dhu-1-Shara in different parts of the Semitic world/^
If other Semitic peoples really had gods called Yahweh, these
were probably sufficiently similar to the Yahweh of early
Israel, either in origin or in nature, to permit the epithet
Yahweh, whatever it may mean, to be applied to them.
As already noted, the analogies of other deities show that this
isthe nearest approach to identity that it is necessary to
assume.
Twoconsequences seem to follow from the foregoing con-
siderations. We should probably look for the origin of the
name Yahweh in some early home of Northern Semites in
Arabia, whence migrations occurred to Babylonia, Palestine,
Sinai, and Hamath and we should expect that name to
;
denote some feature of deity as the giver of fertility. Not

much importance can be attached to an argument from the
etymology of the Tetragrammaton, as so many origins have
been suggested only to be shown inadequate.^^ Neverthe-
^^
less, one etymology which has been suggested several times
is so in harmony with the conditions to which the above con-
siderations point, that in the light of our present knowledge

itseems possible that it is correct. ^^ This etymology derives
the name Yahweh from the Arabic verb haiciya, 'he loved
passionately,' 'he desired.' This would give a meaning so
suitable to a god of fertility that the epithet might easily
stick to the numina of tribes that migrated from the region
where it was first used to widely separated centres. Natu-
rally it would be interpreted by the Hebrews in later times
as a Hebrew word.
These early occurrences of the name Yahweh in Babylonia,
if they are real, do not necessarily imply that the deitj^ wor-
shipped in the time of Hammurabi was the same as that

afterwards possessed by the Israelites, but only that the name
« Cf. W. R. Smith,
Religion of the Semites, pp. 411 ff., especially 414 (2d ed. ) ;
*•
Semitic Origins, p. 289. Cf. Semitic Origins, p. 282, n. 5.
« For instance, in The Nation, 75 (1902). 15.
^*
The present writer accepted it when writing the article ' Israel ' for Hastings's
Dictionary of the Bible in One Volume; cf. p. 411.
Yahweh as an epithet developed early in a centre from which

Semitic tribes migrated, and that it was, like Ishtar, Baal,
and Shamash, widely used — more widely than we have
hitherto supposed.
Another theory that has found advocates in recent years

is that Yahweh was a moon god. This has been urged by
Hommel,^^ implied by Winckler,^^ in part accepted by Zim-
mern,'*^ and worked out at length by Nielsen.^" The proof
for this view is sought in two directions, Mesopotamia and
South Arabia. Abraham, who is said to have been called
by Yahweh to leave Harran, the seat of the moon god's
worship, sojourned at Kirjath-arba, which is believed to
have been so called from the four phases of the moon, and at
Beer-sheba, the name of which betrays as one of its elements
the seven days that measure a phase of the moon. The name
of Abraham's wife, Sarah, is identical with sarratu, a title
of the moon goddess at Harran, and Abraham's sister-in-
law bore a name identical with malkatu, a title of Ishtar,
who was also a member of the pantheon at Harran. The
home of Yahweh was at Sinai, which was apparently named
from the Babylonian moon god Sin. In addition Nielsen
urges that some sexual taboos in Leviticus were identical
with taboos observed in South Arabia, as shown by three
bronze tablets which are inscribed in Sabsean characters,^^
and that the feast of the new moon was observed in Israel.
Of Stade has remarked ^^ that, if Yahweh was
this theory
a moon god, no trace of the fact has survived. If this state-
ment is thought too strong, and the feast of the new moon
is considered such a trace, this nevertheless does not prove
that Yahweh was originally a moon god it would at most ;
show that at one period of his history he was for a time

associated with the moon, or that there had been some de-
gree of syncretism with a moon deity.
^^
The sexual taboos
cited by Nielsen are proofs that both Yahweh and the gods
of South Arabia were deities of fertility.
^' und Abhandlungen, pp. 159, 160.

Aufsiitze
^* Geschichte Israels, passim. '•'
Keilinschriften, pp. 364 ff. (3d ed.).
^^
Die altarabisc'he Mondreligion und die mosaische Ueberlieferung.
" Nielsen, op. cit., pp. 206 ff. Leviticus xv. 16, 17.
;
62
Biblische Theologie, p. 42. " Stade, op. cit., p. 242.
Another theory, advocated by Gunkel in 1901 and 1905 ^''
and by Eduard Meyer in 1906/^ is that Yahweh was a

volcano god. This view is based on the description of the
appearance of Yahweh on Sinai at the time of the making
of the covenant with Israel (Exodus xix. 18),^^ when the
smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole
mountain quaked greatly, —
a description which admirably
suits a volcanic eruption. Recollection of this volcanic
eruption found in Deuteronomy vv. 4 ff., 22 ff. ix, 15.
is also ;
Gunkel had noted that the account of the destruction of

'"^
Sodom and the cities of the plain says this was accomplished
by fire and brimstone, and makes no mention of the Dead
Sea; hence he reasoned that the story was not native to
this locality, but had been brought here from elsewhere, —
as he believed, from the northeast coast of the Red Sea.
The story affords Meyer further proof of the connection of
Yahweh with a volcano.
There are in Arabia extensive regions of volcanic rock
which the Arabs call Harrats, and a number of Arabian
writers have described them. In 1868 Loth published "
a description of them gathered from Yaqut's Geography,
and Meyer, making use of this article, concludes that the
original volcanic Sinai was one of those nearest to Syria
on the road from Tebuk by Medina to Mecca. He says
that nothing stands in the way of the supposition that one
of these volcanic peaks may have been active within the
historic period, even though no mention is made of it in saga
or literature. Meyer appears to have overlooked the fact
that in Wiistenfeld's translation of Samhudi's Historv of
the City of Medina ^^ there is material which more con-
vincingly supports his theory. The Harrat Khaibar, north
of Medina, is called the Harrat Ndr, or Fire Harrat. Its
name implies that volcanic activity has taken place there
"'Genesis,' p. 195, in Nowack's Handkommentar; Ausgewahlte Psalmen,

pp. 80 ff., 117, 180 ff.
" Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstamme, pp. 69 ff.
'
*^
The volcanic nature of Sinai is also advocated by Haupt in his article Midian
and Sinai,' Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 63 (1909).
506-530.
^'
Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 22. 365-382.
Zeitschrift der
^^
Cf Abhandlungen der koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottin-
.
gen, 9. 18.
within the memory of man. It is an extensive tract, over

one hundred miles long and in some parts
thirty miles wide
— a wilderness of lava and lava stones, with many extinct
craters of volcanoes. Igneous rocks of various sorts abound,
and in some places the lava beds are six hundred feet deep.
Signs of volcanic action are still seen at Khaibar, smoke issu-
ing from the crevices and steam from the summit of Gebel
Ethan. Samhudi reports a volcanic eruption here in March,
1^256 A.D., which lasted two days. The earthquakes were
felt at Medina, and the smoke darkened that city.^^ Meyer
may therefore be right in claiming that in the narratives
of the Hebrews we have traditions of volcanic eruption.
Such a tradition would, however, seem to be more certainly
present in the story of the destruction of Sodom than in the
story of the descent of Yahweh upon Sinai, for this last ac-
count might be an exaggerated description of a thunder-storm.
If there are volcanic elements in the traditions of
Yahweh, it is not certain that we need to go so far afield
as Arabia for them. Ellsworth Huntington, Palestine
and its Transformation, 1911, pp. 195 ff., believes that he
found near Suweimeh on the east side of the Dead Sea
sufficient evidence of volcanic activity to account for the
story of Sodom.
Of course if a people lived for a time near a volcano, they
would naturally take its activity for the activity of their
god and this would introduce volcanic elements into the
;
traditions concerning the god. In the case of Yahweh,

however, even if it be admitted that there are volcanic
elements discernible, thej^ are few. The elements of fertility
connected with the conceptions of him are more abundant
and probably earlier. He cannot accordingly be fully
accounted for as the god of a volcano.
Another theory of the origin of Yahweh must be men-
tioned, on account of its recent advocacy. Stade in 1889
urged many reasons for supposing that Yahweh was origi-
nally a storm god.^*^ This view the writer once held,^^ but
*'
See Zwemer, Arabia and the Cradle of Islam, p. 23. Zwemer calculates the
date rightly, Wiistenfeld incorrectly counts Gumada a.h. 654 as March, 1169,
^^
instead of 1256. Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1. 429 S.
^1
Oriental Studies of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, pp. 86 ff.
he afterward saw that it was inadequate to account for all

the conceptions connected with Yahweh.^^ It has however
been recently revived by Dr. Ward in an article pubhshed
in the American Journal of Semitic Languages,^^ and made
the basis of a theory of the origin of the worship of Yahweh.
The god Adad or Hadad as pictured on seals and in other
forms of art which come from Babylonia and Western Asia
is portrayed as carrying a thunderbolt as a god of war he
;
carries a bow, club, and spear and as a god of agriculture

;
or fertility he is represented as leading a bull. The references

to Yahweh in the Old Testament frequently represent him
as coming upon the clouds and in a thimderstorm he was
the god of armies —
a man of war images of bulls were
;
;
made to him of gold. These resemblances led Dr. Ward to

conclude that Adad was the pagan Yahweh before be-
coming the universal god of monotheism, and he offers this
as a more probable theory than that Yahweh was the
"utterly unknown god of the Kenites of Moses' time."
This theory is evidently a very tempting one to Professor
Clay, who holds that the name Yahweh as it is found in
Babylonia is of Aramaean or Amorite origin, and that the
tradition that Abraham was an Aramaean from Harran shows
that Yahweh was an Aramaean deity. He does not, however,
fully commit himself to the view that Yahweh was a Hadad.
^"^
Dr. Ward has rendered a real service in calling our atten-

tion to the rich material which his special subject, Babylonian
and Hittite seals, has to contribute to our understanding of
the various gods which were called Adad or Hadad but ;
the theory itself is not a satisfactory solution of the known

facts concerning either Hadad or Yahweh. Its author has
not given due weight to some of the facts which he himself
presents. A people unskilled in art might represent their
god by a picture borrowed from a neighboring people with-
out having borrowed their god at all. Both the scholars
who advocate the Aramaean origin of Yahweh have over-
looked one very important factor which is deeply embedded
in our Biblical sources, viz. the positive testimony to the
Kenite origin of Yahweh. This is treated more fully below.
«2
Semitic Origins, pp. 279 S. ^ 25. 175-187. " Amurru, pp. 86-90.
Dr. Ward rightly recognizes that Hadad was not a storm

god pure and simple, but also a god of fertility and a god of
war. He recognizes that the Hadads were of composite
origin and were the tribal gods of henotheistic clans. His
general outline is in close harmony with that made by the
present writer in 1901,^^ although from his new material he
now rightly emphasizes the war-god characteristics of the
Hadads was not possible before. It is however a defect
as
in his argument that he fails to recognize that the Hadads
themselves were not borrowed from one another, but were
the product of similar origins and developments. They
probably originated in a desert and oasis environment as
the tribal deities of henotheistic clans, and in doing all that
a god ought to do for their tribes they naturally became
gods of war also, when these tribes moved into lands where
;
the necessary water came from the clouds and not from
springs, the deities were naturally thought to express them-
selves in storms, and in the thunder and lightning which ac-
companies rain.^^ This view is supported by the fact that
springs were sacred to Hadad, and that as Adad in Baby-
lonia ^^ he is associated with Ishtar, and at Mabug with
Attar.68
Indeed, as the Semitic people were a practical folk and not
given to abstractions like the people of India, it is doubtful
whether even in Babylonia the gods were at the beginning
more closely associated with the sun, moon, earth, sea, and
wind than in other parts of the Semitic world. That is, it
is doubtful whether we have any case of what Bloomfield
calls for India a transparent god.^^ A study of the hymns

addressed to various Babylonian gods tends to show that
all Semitic and even Sumerian deities originated as tribal
gods, connected in one way or another with all the activities

85
Semitic Origins, pp. 225-229.
*^
This is in substance the origin of Hadad as sketched by the writer in 1901
(loc. cit.). The account of the god which Dr. Ward gives confirms the probability
of this origin. He adds from the seals the war-god featlire; otherwise his sketch
accords fully with mine. The seals were inaccessible to me.
8'
As in the city of Lulubi see Recueil de Travaux, 14. 100-106.
;
8'
Cf. Lucian, De Syria Dca, §§ 14, 31. The god is here called Zeus, but he stands
on a and so is probably Hadad.
bull
®'
Meaning by the term a god that is clearly the deification of a natural phe-
nomenon, like the sky or sun. See Bloomfield, Religion of the Veda, chapter iv.
of a tribal deity, and that the later special association given

them with different functions of nature or different planets,
and the different spheres assigned to them, never quite sup-
^^
pressed the traces of their origin.
If then we have regard to the development of Semitic
deities in general, and especially to the development of Hadad,
there is no convincing proof in the facts adduced in support
of the theory that Yahweh is derived from Hadad. If an
Arabian tribe of Midianites whose tribal god of fertility
was Yahwêh engaged in wars, as they no doubt did, Yahweh
would inevitably become a god of war. If they moved for
a time to the peninsula of Sinai or had that as a part of the
tract where they roamed, their god would inevitably become
the god of storms, thunder, and lightning, for severe thunder
storms occur there to the present day.^^ The Kenite theory
of the origin of Yahweh supplies all the conditions necessary
to account for all the resemblances which have been urged.
When we remember that it was in all probability similarity
of conditions alone which created the resemblance between
Hadad and the Hittite storm god (for here there can hardly
have been borrowing) the evidence adduced for the Hadad
theory turns out to be only evidence for the Kenite theory
of Yahweh's origin.
This view, moreover, seems to be forced upon us when we
turn our attention to the second consideration mentioned
above. This is the fact that the only positive testimony we
'"
That Nergal, oneof the sun gods, was also a god of fertility, is shown by some
lines of a translated in King's Babylonian Magic, p. 89 (lines 9, 10), and by
hymn
Bollenriicher, Gebete imd Hymnen an Nergal, p. 15 (lines 9, 10). That this holds
good for the moon god Sin is shown by Cuneiform Texts, 17. 15, translated by Perry,
Hymnen an Sin, p. 17 by Vanderburgh, Sumerian Hymns, p. 43 and by Langdon,
; ;
Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 297. Vanderburgh's rendering brings out the
thought most clearly. In another hjTnn Adad is a bull god, which clearly connects
him with agriculture and fertility, although the rest of the hymn is occupied with
his power in storm, lightning, and thunder. Cf. Cuneiform Texts, 15. 15. 19, trans-
lated by Vanderburgh, op. cit., p. 56, and by Langdon, op. cit., p. 283. Again the first
of these translations is to be preferred. That Ishtar was primarily a goddess of
life and only loosely associated with the planet Venus is too patent to need illustra-
tion. Even Anu, who seems of all the Babylonian gods most like an abstraction,
' '
was also a god of fertility, as the name Anu-banini, Anu is our begetter, shows.
Nidaba, the grain deity of Umma, can hardly have been an exception, as she was the
tribal deity of a city. The one exception, Gibil, the fire god, is not a primitive
deity.
" See Agnes Smith Lewis in the Expository Times, 17. 394.
have in the Bible as to where Yahweh came from, is that he

came from Horeb, and that Jethro, who is sometimes called
a priest of Midian and sometimes a Kenite, offered the sacri-
'^
fice which initiated the Hebrew leaders into his worship.
This positive tradition of the fact that Israel first learned
the worship of Yahweh in Horeb, the country of the Midi-
anites, is found in the North Israelitish document of the
Pentateuch —
from the very part of Israel in which presum-
ably Aramaeans from Harran would be most likely to settle,
and in which the Biblical traditions from Aramaean elements
would therefore be most abundant. It is only in Judah,
where the Kenites settled, that the impression prevailed that
the name Yahweh had been knowni from time immemorial.
This testimony is strengthened by the fact that the earliest
proper name in the Old Testament in which Yahweh appears
as an element is Jochebed, the mother of Moses, who may
have been a Kenite. There is abundant evidence in the
Pentateuch that the Israelites recognized that they had an
Aramaean inheritance in their blood, and that in the stories
of traced a part of that inheritance to Harran.
Abraham they
Since Aramaeans formed a part of the Israelitish nation, it
would be natural that they should fuse some of the ideas
that they formerly entertained of their god with their ideas
of Yahweh, but we have no evidence that these particular
Aramaeans worshipped Hadad at all. Not all Aramaeans
had him for their god. Zkr, for example, worshipped the god
Alor or Alur,^^ and at Harran the god of whom we actually
know was the moon god Sin. There is no evidence to con-
nect the Yahweh which is perhaps an element in Babylonian
proper names with Harran, nor is there any which connects
Adad with Harran. To suppose then that if Abraham came
from Harran he worshipped Adad under the name Yahweh
is pure assumption. The testimony of the document which
was treasured as their book of origins by the North Israelites,
the very Israelites who had in them the Aramaean strain in
its greatest purity and who lived in closest contact with the
Aramaeans, that the name Yahweh came from Kenite Horeb,

" See Exodus iii. 1 S. Judges i. 16 Exodus xviii. 12.
; ;
" See Pognon, Inscriptions Semitiques de la Syrie, de la M6sopotamie et de la
region de Mossoul, no. 86.

must, so far as I can see, be decisive,^'' unless we assume that

they themselves knew nothing about the matter. We do
violence to the one bit of information that they have given
us on the point, if we seek the origin of the name Yahweh
as it was applied to the god of Israel anywhere but among the
"
Kenites. So far from being the utterly unlvnown god of the
Kenites," Yahweh's adoption by Israel has made him in
some ways the best known of all Semitic deities. As he
appears in the early days after Israel adopted his worship
he is a god of fertility, a god of war, and a god whose voice
is the thunder. It is diflScult to see how we could know
any more about him if we had on a few seals.

his picture
We do not know so much concerning any single Hadad.
remains to mention one other theory. Professor Haupt,

It
in the Orientalische Literaturzeitung, 12. cols. 211-214,"^
holds that Yahweh was originally the god Esau of Edom,
from which country he was borrowed by the Israelites.
The real arguments advanced in support of this view, apart
from those which are secured by emendations of the text,
are that in the song of Deborah Yahweh is said to have
marched from Seir and Edom (Judges v, 4) and that the name
Yahweh is a late priestly translation of Esau. Esau, from
ntT!?, he interprets as meaning 'creator,* and Yahweh
'
he interprets as a hiphil of n\1, meaning he who causes
to be' or 'he who brings into being.' This etymology of
Yahweh is not new, having been held by Le Clerc, Gesenius,
Schrader, Baudissin, Schultz, Kuenen, Lagarde, and for-
merly by the present writer.
^^
To regard it as a translation
of Esau is however new. This theory of the origin of Yahweh
isunsatisfactory for the following reasons :
It is directly contrary to the testimony of the E docu-

1.
ment, already discussed on page 199 f., that Yahweh was

a Kenite-Midianite deity.
2. There is no real evidence that Esau was a god at all.
''*
This testimony is not invalidated even if one should, with Eerdmans, Alt-
testamentliche Studien, regard the Elohim of the document as polytheistic. The
present writer is not, however, convinced of the correctness of this view.
'^
Cf also his
.
article, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft,
63. 506 ff .
^' Semitic
Origins, p. 282, n. 5, and the references given imder § 4 of the note.
So far as the evidence of theopliorous proper names goes,

Edom was the god of the Edomites as the name Obed-Edom
witnesses, but I know of no name
which Esau appears
in
as a theophorous element. the name 'Asayah
There is
('T^V) which occurs in 2 Kings xxii. 14, and which the

Chronicler has thrust into the older genealogies of the Levites
and Simeonites (1 Chronicles iv. 36, vi. 15 (Eng. 30), ix. 5),
but it more naturally means 'Yau has created' than 'Yau
is Esau.' There is also the name '^'SHw'V, 'God has
created,' a brother of Joab (2 Samuel ii. 18, etc.), as well as
Sx'^lrr, which the Chronicler has added to Simeonite clans
(1 Chronicles iv. 35), but in these as in the other, Tl'C^'S is

a verbal element.
3. Historically it would seem impossible that such borrow-
ing could have occurred. The Kenizzites, of whom the Caleb-

ites were a clan, may have become in part an Edomite
tribe, but the absorption of a part of that tribe into Judah^'

is no proof that Yahweh and Esau were identical.
4. Etymologies are at most only proof that a thing is
possible. To show that what etymologically is possible

was in history a fact we must depend upon other evidence,
and in this case such evidence is wanting.
5. The expression in the Song of Deborah is not proof that
Yahweh was borrowed from Edom, but only that his home
was in a region beyond Edom. It would fit Meyer's vol-
canic Sinai in Arabia as well as Edom. We cannot suppose
that geographical names were used in such ancient poetry
with absolute geographical exactness.
The Esau theory, therefore, like the Hadad theory, lacks
support. It is of course true that Yahweh and the god Edom
were both Semitic deities and had a similar origin. Both
were tribal gods probably both were gods of
; fertility ;and
as the kindred clans lived in neighboring regions, probably
both underwent a similar development as gods of war and
of storm but more than this cannot safely be asserted.
;
While the evidence of the Bible clearly indicates that the

name Yahweh came into Israel from the Kenites, it is of
course true that in a nation, like Israel, formed of composite
"See the article 'Kenizzites' in Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible in One

Volume.
elements, there would be legends concerning Yahweh which

came from different sources. The ritual practices of his cult
as well as the emblems by which he was represented may also
have come from many quarters. The history of Christianity
both in Europe and in the East affords numerous instances
of the transfer of feasts, legends, and practices of an old cult
to a new religion. Since the Midianites in their nomadic
wanderings penetrated for some distance into the Arabian
^^
desert, it is possible that Israel took over with the worship
of Yahweh the traditions to which residence near a volcano

had given rise among the Kenites. The introduction of
the feast of the new moon may possibly have been due,
like the stories of Abraham's migration, to the influx of
Aramaeans from Harran, where the god Sin was wor-
shipped, though it is quite as possible that it came from
Arabia, or that it originated independently. That the
Canaanitish beliefs and practices which were absorbed by
Israel after the settlement in Palestine contributed Canaan-
itish elements to the pre-prophetic conceptions of Yahweh,
is freely claimed by the prophet Hosea and is as freely
admitted by modern scholars. Possibly the Aramaeans

and Edomites who were absorbed into Israel also con-
tributed some elements to his cult from that of the god
Hadad or of the god Esau but these are the two theories
;
which seem to lack all positive proof. We need first some

evidence that the Aramaeans who merged with Israel had
ever worshipped Hadad, or that Esau was really a god.
It seems therefore that the view that the name Yahweh
originated in Arabia and was carried thence by some slight

migrations to Babylonia; that it was the name employed
by the Kenites to designate their god that the Kenites ;
probably attributed to him volcanic activity that wander- ;
ing into the peninsula of Sinai they added to him the qualities
of a storm god that Yahweh was then adopted by the
;
Israelites, and some few elements of ritual from the god Sin
of Harran or some other moon god may have mingled with
the forms of his service and that the conceptions concern-
;
ing him as a god of fertility which had been entertained

' '
^^
See the articles Midianites in Hastings's Dictionaries of the Bible and in
the EncyclopjEdia Biblica.
from the beginning were heightened by association with the

Baals of Palestine, —
is the most scientific theory concerning
the origin of Yahweh which we can at present frame for it ;
best explains all the facts known to us, and explains them
in accordance with what is known of the evolution of Semitic
religions. We may admit with Marti ^^ that it is only an
hypothesis, as is true of all else connected with Israel
before the time of Moses, but it remains the most probable
hypothesis.
^^
Die Religion des Alten Testaments (Tubingen, 1906), p. 6 ; Religion of the
Old Testament (London and New York, 1907), p. 17.
Bryn Mawr,
December, 1909.
DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA
Karl Budde
Marburg University
Das schbne Stiick Hosea xiv. 2-9, das letzte vor der
schriftgelehrten Moral (Vers 10), wird heute weit iiber-
wiegend dem Propheten Hosea abgesprochen. Den Spuren
eines Cheyne und Marti sind in dem einen Jahre 1905 Har-
per, Stade und Sievers gefolgt. Wellhausens Urteil, dass
in xiv. 2-10 "nur weniges von Hoseas Hand herrlihren
Entwickelung schon seit langer Zeit
diirfte," hatte dieser
den Weg gebahnt. Die Versuche von Volz und Nowack
einen echten Kern herauszusehalen, die Bedenken Drivers,
die ruhige Behauptung bei Cornill und Gautier, die mann-
hafte Verteidigung von George A. Smith fallen der entschie-
denen Ablehnung gegeniiber nicht ausreichend ins Gewicht.^
Man ist eben gar zu geneigt, der Skepsis den scharferen
Blick zuzutrauen.
In Wirklichkeit sind die Griinde, die fiir die Echtheit von
Hosea 2-9 sprechen, sehr stark, die fur fremden und
xiv.
spateren Ursprung aeusserst sehwach. Fiir das Zuriick-

kehren zu Jahwe in Vers 2, den grundlegenden Begriff des
ganzen Stiicks, verweist man auf Jer. iii. 12, iv. 1 statt auf
Hos. ii, 9, V. 4, vi. 1, xi. 5. Neben dem ersten Satz des
Gelbbnisses in Vers 4, Verzicht auf die Htilfe Assyriens, der
durch V. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, xii. 2 als gut hoseanisch erwiesen
wird, besteht man darauf, den zweiten "auf Rossen wollen
"
wir nicht reiten von dem gleichen Verzicht fiir Aegypten zu
verstehn, und ftigt hinzu, dass sich der Ausdruck dafiir nur
^
Am wenigsten Eindruck wird die Verteidigung des Abschnitts durch W.
Staerk machen (Das assyrische Weltreich im Urteil der Propheten, 1908, p.
36 ff.), da er es daneben fertig bringt, im Anschluss an Marti ein unerfindbares
Stiick wie Kap. 3 zu streichen und Hosea, den Prediger der Liebe Jahwes, auf
der Hdhe seines Wirkens zum Vertreter bedingungsloser Vernichtung zu stempeln.
205
206 DER SCHLUSS DES BUCHES HOSEA
ous Abhangigkcit von Jes. xxx. 16 begreife. Damit ware

nachhoseanische Abfassung erwiesen. Aber der dritte Satz,
Verzicht auf Gotzendienst, wieder nacli Inhalt und Form
durch viii. 6, xiii. 2, ii. s. w. in Hosea's Bereich gezogen,
beweist, dass von klappendem Parallelismus nicht die Rede
sein kann, dass vielmehr auch der mittlere Satz etwas fiir
sieh bedeuten muss. Das aber ist, dem schlichten Wortlaut
entsprechend, der Verzicht auf die eigene kriegerische Macht-
entfaltung, mit dem bosen Beigeschmack, den das Streitross
fiir Israel immer gehabt hat. Nicht auslandische Hiilfe,
nicht eigene Kraft, nicht die Gunst der Gotzen, das ist der
Sinn von Vers 4a, alles echt hoseanisch. Das Straucheln
durch die eigene Siindenschuld in 2b findet sich genau so
V, 5, vgl. iv. 5 ;
zu dem Erbarmen Jahwes in 4b vgl. den
Namen der Tochter in i, 8 und dessen Ausbeutung in Kap.
ii; zu seinem Heilen (Vers 5) v, 13, vi. 1, vii. 1, xi. 3; zu
seiner Liebe ebendort ix. 15 und das ganze Buch Hosea ; zu
dem Sitzen im Schatten Jahwes (Vers 8) iv. 13 ; zu v. 8f im .
ganzen, der Verheissung reicher Ernten als Geschenk Jahwes,

nicht der Gotzen, ii. 7 ff. Man muss in der Tat schon mit
' '
Marti Wert darauf legen,dass ^|?5'i\ Schoss ', und *''i'^, Pracht ',
nur bei spiiteren Autoren vorkommen, oder etwa gar, dass
der Oelbaum sonst bei Hosea nicht erwahnt wird, und
dass nSw'ltZ^ als Blumenname sich nur im Hohenlied und
einigen Psalmen findet, um Beweise spaterer Sprache oder
unhoseanischer Gedanken beizubringen.
Das ganze Stiick ist vielmehr so hoseanisch wie moglich,
da es geradezu das Programm Hosea's enthalt, die Umsetz-
ung der Allegoric ii. 7 ff in die eigentliche Aussage von dem
.
Volke Israel. Die Stelle am Schluss des Buches, die es jetzt

einnimmt, ist natiirlich durchaus unverbindlich, da wir
keinerlei Gewahr dafiir haben, dass die uberlieferte Reihen-
folge der Stiicke auf Hosea zuriickgeht, allerlei Verwirrung
vielmehr als selbstverstandlich vorausgesetzt werden muss
und im einzelnen nachgewiesen werden kann. Aber ander-
seits bedarf es auch nicht erst der Annahme, dass das Stiick
friiher cine andre Stelle eingenommen habe, um seine Echt-
heit zu verteidigen (so z. B. Smith, Gautier, Staerk). Denn
dass Israel Jahwes Gnade erfahren werde, wenn es sich, sei
es jetzt und ganz, sei es nach schweren Schlagen in seinem
KARL BUDDE 207
Reste, zu Jahwe bekehre, das ist Hosea's Glaube und Predigt

bis zu seinem letzten Atemzug geblieben und konnte bei
seinem Einblick in Jahwes Wesen gar nicht anders sein>
Auf Grund dieser Einsicht wird man vielmehr sagen miissen,
dass Kapitel xiv. sich viel besser zum Abschluss des Hosea-
buches eignet als eine Unheilsverkiindigung wie xiii. 9-xiv. 1
oder gar die hochste Steigerung des Zornes Jahwes, wie sie in
ix. 10 ff. einmal auflodert.
Und dennoch lasst sich das Verwerfungsurteil bei xiv.
2-9 leichter begreifen als bei manchen andren Abschnitten.
Die selbstverstandHche Voraussetzung jeder prophetischen
Heilsverheissung, auch bei Hosea, ist die Wiirdigkeit der
Empfanger oder ihre Bekehrung im Fall der Unwiirdigkeit.
In Kap.ii. und iii., auch v. 15, vi. 1 ff., ist diese Bekehrung
unmissverstandlich vorausgesagt ; in xiv. 2-4 ist nur der

Rat dazu erteilt, und darauf folgt in V. 5 ff. die Heilszusage
unbedingt und uneingeschrankt. Die einzige Begriindung
dieser Verheissung bildet die Aussage 5b, dass Jahwes Zorn
von Israel gewichen sei, so unvermittelt und nichtssagend,
dass Marti sie fiir eine Glosse noch innerhalb des spaten
Anhangs erklart. Hier klafft eine Liicke. Solange es nicht
gliickt, sie mit Wahrscheinlichkeit auszufiillen, hat man das
Recht, die Herkunf t der Verse von Hosea zu bestreiten ;
denn bedingungslose Heilsverheissung ist auch bei ihm

nicht zu erwarten. Aber der Schaden will nicht durch den
Feldscher beseitigt sein, der kein andres Mittel kennt als
das Absagen des kranken Ghedes, sondern durch die sach-
kundige und geduldige Hand des Chirurgen, der die Erhalt-
ung und den gesunden Gebrauch des unersetzlichen Gliedes
stets im Auge behalt.
Jeder weiss, dass die Voraussetzung der Textverderbnis
nirgend naher zur Hand liegt als beim Buche Hosea; dass
xiv. 2-9 diese seine Lazarusgestalt, die schon nach dem
Befunde der LXX sicher in friihe Zeit zuriickgeht, in vollem
Masse teilt, sollte allein geniigen, mit der Zuweisung an eine
spate Hand nicht zu eilig zu sein, Hier fehlt vor V. 5 sehr
wenig, um alles Folgende als echte Fortsetzung von V. 2-4
verstandlich zu machen, namlich der Wunsch in Jahwes
Munde, dass Israel den erhaltenen Rat befolge, ein solches
Bussgelubde ablege, sich aufrichtig bekehre. Sobald dieser
Wunsch ausgesprochen ist, ordnet er sichalles Folgende
unter, und alle die herrlichen Verheissungen werden damit

nur zum verlockenden Bilde dessen, was Israel sich durcli
Busse und Bekehrung sichern kann. Ein einziger Satz
wiirde dafiir geniigen, und ich glaube in der Tat, dass er,
nur wenig entstellt, aber zum Teil von seiner Stelle ver-
drangt, sich erhalten hat. Dem V. 5 geht unmittelbar vorauf
das Wort ^"^^1, 'die Waise,' das vaterlose oder elternlose
Kind. Israel spricht in der ersten Person plural. warum ;
fiir das 'wir' hier auf einmal 'die Waise' eintritt, fiir die
schliehte Rede ein im hochsten Grade unpassendes Bild, ist

schleehterdings nicht einzusehen. Selbst Ps.
14, 18, x.
Ixviii.6 sind schlechte Belege dafiir, dass Israel sich als
Waise bezeichnen kann, und Evangelium Johannis xiv. 18
darf man doch Marti hat daher ganz
gar nicht vergleichen.
Recht, wenn Fassung gegen den Satz Einspruch
er in dieser
erhebt. Aber die einfache Streichung (so audi Sievers)
hilft hier doch ebensowenig; denn die Begrundung durch
ein abschliessendes positives Bekenntnis zu Jahwe ist nach
den drei Negationen von 4a gar nicht zu entbehren. Auch
die Versetzung von 4b hinter V. 3 (Harper) mag metrischen
Postulaten Geniige tun, dient aber im ubrigen nur dazu,
diese grosse sachliche Schwierigkeit erst recht fiihlbar zu
machen.
Sobald man aus ^D*^"!, das dem falschen Subjekt ^'^1 ange-
passt ist, das allein mogliche ^H"^? herstellt, gewinnt man
einen guten Sinn: "sintemal wir in Dir Erbarmen er-
fahren." 'In Dir alleiri^ ware erwlinscht, und es liegt so
nahe wie moglich, nach dem dreifachen Verzicht, der vor-
ausgegangen, das "^"l?/ dafiir hinter "^5 einzuschieben.
Woher aber das unbrauchbare 21^"' ?
Wir haben gesehen, dass an dieser Stelle ein Wunschsatz
sich vermissen lasst. Die beste Einleitung dafiir ware 1^"! "'^ :
eben diese sehe ich in dem uberschiissigen Wort. Von den

Konsonanten \^''^^ ^TH'i ist ein ^ und ein iibergangen und
^
dann j^"' zu ^^1 ausgedeutet und in ^1^"' verdeutlicht worden.

Der Rest, durch dessen Abhandenkommen dieser Notbe-
helf zustande kam, findet sich nicht weit davon in eben dem
Satze 5b, den wir schon oben als mit dem Zusammenhang
unvereinbar erkannt haben. Er ist es doppelt, wenn V. 5 ff .
KARL BUDDB 209
nicht die schlichte Zusage des Heils enthalten, sondern die

Ausmalung dessen, was eintreten wiirde, wenn Israel sich
auf rich tig bekehrte. Gerade dies ^^], das wir hinter |^^ ""^
nach V. 2 erwarten miissen, steckt in dem 3^"'3, womit 5b
beginnt, und 'Ephraim' = ^"iSi^ als Subjekt dazu in dem
Rest IJ^^ÊS, Durch ein Versehen sind diese Worte von
der Stelle hinter V. 4 in die nachste Zeile hinabgeglitten und
dann, soweit nicht Verderbnis schon dazu geholfen hatte,
dem Fortschritt der Rede nach Kraften angepasst worden.
Der bis dahin ermittelte Satz O'l?^ ^^^ W. '^, 'O dass doch
'
Ephraim sich bekehrte kbnnte vollstandig sein

! aber ;
ebensogut konnen die unverwendeten Buchstaben ^3X3 noch

die Stelle einer kleinen Erganzung einnehmen, etwa ^^^,
'
zu mir,' oder besser noch ^^^5, 'aufrichtig.' Jedenfalls
"
schliesst sich nun das Folgende vortrefflich an Wie wollt'
:
ich heilen ihren Abfall, sie aus freien Stucken lieben !", u.s.w.
Es wird sich empfehlen, von hier aus zunachst die Rede
Jahwes bis zu Ende zu verfolgen und nach Kraften herzu-
stellen, Der Name Ephraim, den wir vor V. 5 wiedergewon-
nen haben, findet sich auch V. 9 —
nebenbei ein weiterer
Fingerzeig, dass xiv. 2-9 schwerlich nachjeremianische
—
Mache ist wahrscheinlich ist aber uberdies in V. 8, vor niS'^^
ein 2"!1?*?') verloren gegangen. Man sieht aus diesem Vor-
schlag schon, dass ich mit den von Sievers so fein durch-
gefiihrten Fiinfern keineswegs einverstanden bin. Sucht
man nach bestimmten Versmassen, so lassen sich Verse von
gleichschwebenden Zeilen, Doppeldreier untermischt mit
Doppelvierern, wie Hosea sie auch sonst liebt, leichter gewin-
nen. Die Verse 6-8 bilden je drei Zeilen.- Und nun weiter
in der Herstellung des Textes. In V. 7 ist Wellhausens
|S2? nicht anstatt sondern hinter P^??5 oder '"'???'? am
Platze, weil der Weinstock sich durch die reiche Aus-
breitung seiner Schusse tiber der Erde (in Palastina wag-
recht gelegt) auszeichnet, wie andre Baume durch die ihrer
Wurzeln. Am Ende von V. 7 ist doch wohl '"fjl^r^, 'wie
Weihrauch,' zu lesen. Dass das Subjekt sich in V. 8 in den
^
Wer auf einem durchlaufenden gleichen Versmass besteht, mag daher daran
denken, diese Verse auszuscheiden, zumal sie auch sachlich nichts wesentlich Neues
herzutragen. Aber man beachte wohl, dass auch V. 4 in drei Zeilen gelesen werden
muss.
Plural umsetzt, bleibt in dem uberlieferten Text ohne
Erklarimg; hinter ^^^1 wird 'seine Sbhne,' iibersehen
"I??,
sein, womit zugleich die bildliche Rede in die eigentliche

iibergeht. Liingst ist V^? ^^'P~ hergestellt; dann aber ist
'
in gut und nur weiter zu lesen |S^ ^rflSÎ^ und werden
^'''^-
Weinstocke zum Treiben bringen,' unter Streiehung des ^

"
nach LXX. So fiillt der Mischmasch von eigentlicher und
"
bildlicher Rede fort, an dem Wellhausen Anstoss nimmt.
Die dritte Zeile muss von dem Erzeugnis ihres Weinstocks
reden (jSa miinnlieh wie x. 1). Ob der Libanon damals
schon beriihmten Wein erzeugte, wissen wir nicht; viel-
leicht darf man nach Hes. xxvii. 18 J'i^?'^ lierstellen. Neben
"i*!^??, 'und sein Ruf,' mag "i"!?^^ 'und sein Rauschtrank,'
wie Num. xxviii. 7 vom Weine, in Frage kommen. Auch
I^Dt^ I'D)] ware moglich. Fiir V. 9 scheint es mir geratener,
nach dem einzigen y^^, das auch von LXX bezeugt wird,
die Anrede liberal! durchzufuhren, als dies und das im ''''
Anfang in die dritte Person Singularis umzusetzen, Dann

ergibt sich mit V. 9 ein tiefer Einschnitt in ziirtlicher An-
:
rede schaut Jahwe das Ersehnte vollendet und zieht den

letzten Schluss daraus. Vor dem graphisch sehr leichten,
sachlich recht fernliegenden Vorschlag von Wellhausen, in
die zweite Person umgesetzt '^''l^^!! "^^13?, deine 'Anat und
deine Ascheren,' scheint mir der von Volz IHI ^^'0 T^'^^ '?i<,
'ich erhore dich mit Most und Getreide,' nach ii. [7] 11,
24 bei weitem den Vorzug zu verdienen, Vor ^1*123 ist ^P
kaum entbehrlich und der Ausfall leicht zu erklaren.
Ein Blick auf den Anfang mag endlich noch lolinen. Die
Kurze von 2b und 3a macht sofort den Eindruck der Klag-
liedverse (Fiinfer) und gibt den Anstoss sie auch fernerhin
zu suchen, wie das Sievers durchgefuhrt hat. Aber hinter
in 3a bietet
'Tl'"'^ LXX
noch 0?^^'^^, das man keine Ursache
hat abzulehnen, und vor ri^tTD in V. 2 wiirde ein ^^?
noch gute Wirkung tun. Die "Worte" in V. 3 hat man oft
unzulanglich gefunden, und in der Tat ist ein Zusatz wie
^^^1^, 'begutigcnde Worte,' kaum zu entbehren. In dem
ratselhaften 2'i^"nj?'], fiir das Graetz die hiibsche Lesung
nx^ni vorgeschlagen hat, mbchte ich eine Randbemerkung
sehen, die bestimmt war, das iibersehene 2"'3"1I2 nachzu-
121^1 ist
tragen. Das folgende gewiss nach V. 2 verschrieben.
KARL BUDDE 211
nur l^^'l ist liier am Platze. LXX noch ^^

Fur ^3 hat
gelesen ;
dadurch entstanden sein, dass
die Verderbnis wird
man das ^ von ^^^ zu einem iiberfliissigen 1 y^ erganzte.
Man streiche also 1^^^ und lese ^W<^ ''?^. Das 1 von Hpl
wird man zuriickziehen und dann ^1251^ lesen diirf en 'Ach, :
'
du wirst unser Schuld vergeben Das ^?^ ware zur Ein-
!
fiilirung demiitiger Rede gebraucht wie Gen. xlii. 21 2 Sam. ;
xiv. 5 ;2 Kon. iv. 14. Ueber l^^nStT OnS brauche ich dem
bisher Gebotenen nichts hinzuzufiigen.
Das sind gewiss reichliche Vorschlage zu Textanderungen ;
aber wer sich davor scheut, soil die Hand nicht an das Buch
Hosea legen. Audi der weitestgehende Verzicht hilft liier
nichts ; denn gerade wer alles, was ihm verdorben scheint,
uniibersetzt lasst, wird am haufigsten iibersetzen, was er
nicht verantworten kann. Hier hilft nur ein Verfahren :
sich mit aller Hingabe in den grossen Gedankengang eines

Stucks hineindenken und dann aus dem Vollen des so gewon-
nenen Verstandnisses tapfer an die Herstellung gehn. Wer
nicht wagt, gewinnt nicht. Mochte, was ich geboten,
wenigstens auf dem richtigen Wege liegen !
Makburg,
Juni, 1910.
THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA
E. Washburn Hopkins
Yale University
In an article recently published,^ I have discussed the
magical power of water and its holiness, which leads to the

belief current in India that simple immersion in any water,
provided one thinks of a sacred river or pool, frees from sin,^
and to the parallel idea that, as water purifies from sin, so
it purifies from all that pollutes, stains, darkens, obscures ;
and hence pure wisdom, which frees from all obscurity, is

typified by water, and the god of wisdom and water are
identified, just as they are in Babylon (cf. the Teutonic
fountain of wisdom). In the present paper I shall take up
the beliefs in regard to the sacred rivers of India as these are
handed down in the epic poetry, but this will not include
a dissertation on the Tirthas or holy watering places, which
are generally to be found at certain spots in rivers otherwise
holy. The cult of such places is not particularly modern ;
but to enumerate even the names, much more the legends

connected with these names, would take a small volume. It
is rather the cult and legends of the rivers themselves which
are here in question. For the same reason, the philosophical

and religious aspect of bathing and purification, though
intimately connected with the subject of rivers, must be
passed over with the comprehensive remark that, silly as
seem some of the epic dicta (such as for example that a bath
in a certain pool purifies just so many ancestors from sin),
the poets often rise to heights like that of xiii. 108. 12, where
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 49. 37.

1
^
Mahabharata, xiii. 125. 49. In this passage the holy places enumerated in
connection with the bath that purifies are Kurukshetra, Gaya, Ganga (Ganges),
Prabhasa, and the Pushkaras. [References below are to the Mahabharata in the
Bombay text unless otherwise stated; those to the Ramayana follow the South
Indian text.]
213
214 THE SACRED RIVERS OF INDIA
it is said, in level marked by the

calm rejection of the lower
folly of Tlrthas, that "true purification is the purification
through knowledge," and one should bathe in "the Tirtha
of the mind." For, says this teacher, "he has not taken
the bath {i.e. of purification) who is merely limb-bathed ;
but he has bathed who has bathed himself in self-restraint,
who has made himself pure within and without" {ibid. 8 f).
The belief that all rivers are holy is expressed in the great
epic with the words "all rivers are Sarasvatis," xii. 264. 40,
where the poet wishes to inculcate the doctrine that for
purposes of holiness and religion one river or one mountain
is as holy as another, since "the soul is the watering-place;
one should not travel to places" (do not be a degdtithi).
The Sarasvati is the Jordan of India but there is more said
;
about it than can be localized, since this name, which means

only 'the stream,' was applied first to the Indus, then to an
insignificant but holy stream which debouched into and was
lost in the desert, and finally to the continuation of this last
stream in the Ganges, where in popular fable its Arethusian
course really terminated.^ In much the same way the
goddess Ganges was brought by the Saint Vasishtha to Lake
Manasa and there "became the river Sarju," xiii. 156. 24.
In this same book, 167. 17 f., the Sarasvati is distinct from
both Ganges and Indus and is grouped with the sacred streams
of the Punjab in a list of rivers which covers territory from
the southern Cauvery (mentioned twice as a sacred river, vss.
20 and 22) to the Oxus, a stream rarely alluded to (the
Vakshu or Vankshu).^
The list of rivers in this passage contains, with the excep-
tion of the Indus, Oxus, and Lohita (ma/zana{â), only feminine
names, although "rivers male and female" are often alluded
to,^ and one would think that they were regarded as of either
sex indifferently. Such is indeed the case in many instances,
'
Yet in ix. 35. 90, the Sarasvati, "lost at the Tirtha of Udapana," unites with
the ocean at Prabhasa (where the moon recovered from consumption by bathing,
ibid. 77).
*
The Bombay text has Cakshu for Vankshu of the Calcutta text, B. xiii. 166.
22 = C. 7648; cf. ii. 51. 20, Vankshu = Vakshu (Oxus). The reading of the South
Indian text agrees with that of Bombay (S. I. 271. 22).
^
E.g., viii. 79. 74. Cf. the epithet of ocean, nada-nadi-pati, 'Lord of rivers male
and female,' in Ramayana, iii. 35. 7, etc.
E. WASHBURN HOPKINS 215
for example in Ramayana, iii. 60. 11 ; yet in their mytholog-

ical aspects, as well as in their poetical application,^ rivers
are distinctly feminine. 'Lady Ganges' is typical of all
the rest, since even a masculine name does not serve to pre-
serve the 'ruddy Cona' from becoming the Cona. The
Tirthas, however, remain neuter even when personified,
as in the case of the "eldest Puslikara," xiii. 125. 49, etc.
These watering-places gradually become holier than the
which they owe their holiness; for example, "the
rivers to
Tirtha of Saras vati surpasses in holiness the Saras vati,"
just as the Saras vati surpasses the holy land of Kurukshetra,
xii. 152. 11 f. But of course not all rivers are holy before
their Tirthas. At whatever spot Rama bathes, the river is
hallowed (whether the whole river be holy or not), but also
"rivers are hallowed if Rama bathes in them," Ramavana,
ii. 48. 9. The Ganges
is holy anyway, but doubly holy at
Cringaverapura, because Rama crossed over it there, iii. 85.

65, and Ramayana, ii, 83 to 89. The Gumti (Gomati) is
famous because Rama sacrificed upon its banks, iii. 291. 70.
In general, any confluence is sacred, whether it be of two
rivers, or of a river and ocean. Examples are the SarasvatI
or Indus or Ganges uniting with the ocean, and Sarasvati
uniting with the Aruna or Ganges with the Jumna.
^
The epic of Rama and the South naturally deals more with
the rivers of that part of India, and the Pampa, Cauvery,
and other southern streams are described and revered as
^
fully as those of the North. In fact, even in this epic the
®
TamrapamI (river) sought woman in love her lover," Ramayana,
the sea "as a
iv. 41. 18. Compare ibid. 40. and especially the description (ibid. 30. 28, re-
20,
peated V. 9. 51) of rivers showing sandbanks in autumn "like women exposing their
hidden beauties," navasangamasankridd jagkandnlva yoshitah.
The varied reading at xii. 152. 13 removes the absurdity of saying that the
''
"SarasvatI and Drishadvati unite in Manasa lake" (B. sangamo manasassaras ;

South Indian text, sevamdno 'nusanjvaret. The passages referred to above on the
confluences will be found at iii. 82. 60 and 68; 83. 152 f and 85. 83. The last .
;
section, vss. 22 and 33, agrees with Ramayana iv. 41. 15 in ascribing the special
holiness of the Cauvery to the nymphs that haunt it, as saints haunt the Godavari.
' '
In later legend the Cauvery is regarded as half the Ganges and is personified as
the daughter of Yuvanagva and wife of Jahnu, Harivanga, 1421 f. The South In-
dian text at xii. 82. 48, corasamyutd, makes the Cauvery a resort of thieves.
^
Pampa is the name of both lake and river, described Ramayana, iii. 73 fF. and
75 ; also ibid. iv. 1. 1. The Narmada is both givd and durgd, ibid. 41. 8 (described
ibid. vii. 31. 18 ff.), that is, it is a violent yet gracious river.
northern rivers are better described, partly because they are

better known and partly because Rama's journey takes him
over the famous northern streams, while he ascends to
heaven at the "holy Saryu" (Ramayana, iv. 28. 18 f. ibid. ;
vii. 110. 7 f.). The Godavari owes its sanctity to the fact
that Rama sojourned there {ibid. iii. 13. 21, etc.). He crossed
without getting out of his chariot the rivers Vedagrutl and
GomatI and Syandika (ibid. ii. 49. 10 fi".). In her distress
Sita invokes Ganges and Jumna, the latter being called
Anqumatl nadl, which I have difficulty in believing means,
'
as the scholiast says, the daughter of the sun.' ^
The
Yamuna a Tirtha which (Ramayana, vi. 12. 28) is filled
is
once (yearly ?) by the Yamuna (Jumna) according to ;
(Mahabh.) iii. 84. 44, it should be at the source of the river

Jumna.
The lists of these holy rivers begin as early as the Rigveda.
The epic lists vary. In vi. 9. 14 f. the rivers in India proper
(Bharata-land) are mentioned, and, ibid. 11. 31 f., those in
Caka-land. Other lists are given at iii. 188. 102 f., iii. 222.
22 f., and xiii. 166. 19 f. There are more than one hundred
and sixty names in the first of these lists. To consecrate
Rama, water was brought from five hundred rivers and
the four seas (Ramayana, vi. 131. 53). Compare the list
ibid. iv. 40. But the old term 'Five Rivers' (Punjab) or
'Seven Rivers' (the Persian and classical designation) still
obtains. Compare in vii. 101. 28, "the ocean-going (streams)
with Indus as the sixth," which go but "return not," ibid.
vs. 3 and vii. 45. 7. The epic seven (cf. Vergil's ^neid,
ix. 30) are not fixed. In one passage, cited below, p. 226, the
Ganges is mentioned with six others, and in another the
Ganges with six entirely different streams, so that Ganges
^
Both Jumna Kalindl (from the mountain Kalinda), and Sita
epics call the
offers this stream "a thousand cows and an hundred jars of brandy," perhaps in-
tended for the priests, as explicitly stated when Ganges is invoked, Ramayana, ii.
55. 4, 6and 19; iv. 40. 19. Bharadvaja's holy hermitage is "at the union of Ganges
"
and Jumna." The Jumna represents the stream of youth, which passes and comes
not back," Ramayana, ii. 105. 19, ydty eva and v. 20. 12, yad atltam punar nditi.
From the heights of air Sampati views rivers as "threads" on earth, Ramayana, iv.
61. 8; ibid. 40. 20 and 30, the Sone is "red, swift and without ford." It is men-
tioned here with the Kaugikl (Kosi), Sarasvati, Mahl, etc., and with another "Sone"
which is imknown but may be the first carelessly repeated. The Yamuna here re-
ferred to is probably the mountain Kalinda {ibid. vs. 19).
alone remains common to both lists, while it is certain that

the Seven of antiquity did not have the Ganges at all.
None of these lists includes what Sir George Birdwood in his
letter to the London Times (March 10, 1910) calls one of
' '
the proverbial Seven Rivers, namely, the Kumari. Ganges
herself is sevenfold (see below, p. 226).
A very puzzling thing to one ignorant of the historical
development of the epic is the way in which the land of the
holy rivers is there regarded. Sometimes it is a sort of
holy land, and sometimes it is looked on askance as the
abode of sinful people. In viii. 44. 6, "the Indus as the
sixth" refers to five other holy rivers remote from the de-
spised Vahlkas, who have been "excluded by Himavat,
Ganga, Sarasvati, Yamuna, and Kurukshetra, and are re-
moved from the five rivers having the Indus as the sixth.'*
The town of these people is Cakala (Sagala), the river is
Apaga, and the Vahikas themselves are Jarttika-nama
(Jats), ibid. vs. 10 (= South Indian 37. 20, where the text
has Candala-nama) The five rivers named here {ibid. vss.
.
31 f.) are the (modern) Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chinab, and

Jhelum, so that the land is that of the holy rivers. Yet the
region is not holy but sinful, the land of Arattas or Vahlkas.^*'
Only low Brahmins live there. A list follows of those "thus
blamable," Prasthalas, Madras, Gandharas, Arattas, Kha-
gas, Vasatis, Sindhusauvlras. It is clear that as the demons
live in the old Punjab river, assumed as the origin of the
name of the sinful Vahikas, the place cannot be other than
the Punjab itself, though the taint extends, as explained in
the subtended group, westward (to Kandahar and perhaps
to Balkh). In iii. 82. 83 and 89, Pancanada is the name of
a special Tirtha as well as of the Punjab in general, and the
Beas Tirtha in particular is noted as the home of the Naga
Takshaka; it is "in Kashmir" {ibid. vs. 90) an elastic term
(cf. the origin of Takshagila, Ramayana, vii. 101, where
Taksha is son of Bharata).
^°
The name Aratta refers to the place, Vahika to the people {ibid. vs. 45 but B
;
has vdhikam ndma tajjalam). The origin of the name Vahika is said to be from
Vahi and Hika, two Pigacakas (demons) living in the river Beas. The South
Indian text, 37. 43 and 56, reads Bdhlikam ndma tadvanam and drattd ndma Bdhlikd
(eteshv dryo hi no vaset) and also gives the names of the Pigacakas as Bahlika and
Hika. This text has Eravati {aic) !
The rivers are sweet of voice and as a congregation they

unite in "praising god Indra" in the most orthodox fashion,
V. 17. 22, etc. But when the great god Civa comes, they,
like the birds, are overawed and cease to make a sound, iii.
96. 6. Unconsciously, owing to their purity, they free from
ill as well as from the case of the Beas and
sin ; but also, as in
Samanga, they consciously save the good man who falls into
their waters. The rivers Nanda ,and. Apara-Nanda "re-
^^
move both sin and fear," iii. 110. 1. Apart from magical
phenomena connected with the rivers, the physical aspects
spoken of are chiefly the swiftness and
commonplace :
whirls of the current, the sandy shores, the creatures that

live in the stream, the hermitages on the banks nothing
—
particularly mythological. In one regard, however, the
rivers have changed. In the good old days of Suhotra all
rivers "ran gold, free to all," but nowadays only Ganges has
gold in its bosom, which is a by-product of the seed of
Civa cast upon its waters when the war god Skanda (Alex-
ander ?) was born. ^2
Like the "bloody (or ruddy) Sone," the SarasvatI is "red,"
ix. 5. 51, and several rivers are called "golden." The golden
HiranvatI of the holy land seems to be sacred, but its holi-
ness does not prevent its use as a moat, owing to the fact
that it is easy to get to and has no mud or sharp stones, v.
152. 7. The Sita river has this peculiarity, that boats sink
in it, xii. 82. 44. Both Ganges and Narmada are "divided
in two" when they run against a hill, vii. 30. 30; xii. 52. 32
(the Narmada is divided by the Rikshavat Mountains).
If these are physical attributes, the statement that "Ganges
is not much disturbed at the coming of rain" (Ramayana,
v. 16. 4) implies feeling. When anything untoward happens,

" iii. 139. 9 ; xiii. 3. 13.
^ Compare, and for Civa's seed, the passages
for the old state of affairs, vii. 56. 6
cited below. Obvious statements
regard to the rivers are that they increase as
in
they debouch into the ocean, v. 110. 17, etc.; Ramayana, ii. 62. 18; and that a
river is one of the things that "increase by moving" (answer to a riddle, iii.
133. 29 = 313. 62). The origin of rivers is doubtful, like that of saints and great
families, v. 35. 72. They have no owners, xiii. 66. 36, being in this regard like
mountains and forests and Tirthas. A poor river is easy to fill. This seems to be
a proverb "Easy to fill is a poor river and a mouse's hand," supurd vdi kunadikd
:
supuro mushikdnjalih, v. 133. 9; it is also "easy to ford," vii. 119. 5. The Sone
has pearls (Ramayana, iv. 40. 20).
rivers are apt to "run backward," which of course also in-

dicates mentahty ; it is an evil omen as well, vii. 75. 5 ; ix.
58. 58 f. When
the great knight Karna died, "The rivers
ceased to flow, the sun sank, and the planet Mercury ran
athwart the sky, gleaming like the sun," viii. 94. 49.
The personification of rivers is especially prominent in
their married relations, of which more anon, but it appears
also in the casual conversations held with rivers. One type
of these conversations is where they talk with their kind,
that is, with other waters. Thus in xii. 113. 2 f.. Ocean, who
is naturally the "Lord of Rivers," holds a conversation with
Ganges. He is curious to know why the rivers are always

bringing down huge trees yet do not convey the slender reeds
which line the banks of all streams. Ganges explains that
the trees resist and are overwhelmed, whereas the reeds bend
and so escape destruction. Another type of conversation is
based on the womanly character of rivers, and the talk is here
between the stream and the goddess wife of Civa, in re-
gard to the conduct of good women. Uma, the goddess, xiii.
146. 17 f., asks Ganges and other rivers how exemplary
women ought to behave. Incidentally some of the holiest
rivers are named at this place, viz. Sarasvati, the "best of
rivers and first of all streams running into the ocean," and
then
Vipaqd ea Vitastd ca Candrabhdgd Irdvatl
Catadrur Devikd Sindhuh Kdugiki, Gdutami tathd,
(Beas, Jhelum, Chinab, Ravi, Sutlej, Sarju, Devika, Indus,

Cosy, Gumti), and finally Ganges, "the goddess who came
from heaven to earth, and is the best of all." ^^
Those named, however, are not the only holy streams of
the Punjab, since Caradanda is a holy river there, beside
which grows a tree divine that is called satyopaydcana, that
' '
is, assuring the wishes of whoever begs of it, and near this,
to the west, is the Ikshumati, called "holy" (Ramayana, ii.
'^
This is an etymological laud :
gagandd gam gold devi gangd sarvasaridvard.
The conversation ends with a lecture by Uma The wife should
herself, vs.
f. 33
regard her husband as her god and be so devoted to him that she will not even look
at another man or male, even at sun or moon (as males), or at "a tree with a mascu-
line name" {ibid. 43). Above read GomatI (?), or Gautami is the Godavari.
68, 16 f.), while the Calmali (ibid. 19) is in the vicinity of

the Beas.
Divinities Hve beside the rivers, tlravdsinas, but the
streams themselves are invoked to flow with wine and brandy
and water sweet as sugar, although in response they actually
bring milk (Ramayana, ii. 91. 15 and 40). The lakes, how-
ever, supply the needed wine at the request of the saint
{ibid. 69) Both trees and rivers fear at the approach of the
.
fiend Ravana, and as the trees do not dare to move a leaf,

so the rivers are "silent with fright" {ibid. iii. 46. 7 and 48. 9).
When the trees and rivers are invoked to tell where Sita is,
they will not answer, not because thej' cannot, but, as is
rather quaintly said, they "thought about it but would not
speak" (Ramayana, iii. 64. 9; cf. ibid. 49. 32). Only the
animals, by facing south, show mutely the direction, in-
dicating that "they wished to speak" {ibid. iii. 64. 15).
Elsewhere ^^ I have alluded to the case of a mountain be-
getting a daughter by a river but the poets do not hesitate
;
to ascribe similar relations to rivers and human beings, as

in the case of the Cauvery SatyavatI, the
already cited.
sister of the Vedic saint Vigvamitra and wife of the seer
Riclka, became the river Kaugiki because in death she
followed her husband to heaven, whence she descends as the
river,
—
a pretty though illogical legend of the Ramayana,
i. 34. 8. So in Puranic legend the river Bahuda is Gaurl, the
wife of Prasenajit, now turned into one of the many streams
pilgrimage to any one of which exalts a man after death to
the high heaven of Goloka.^^ The Bahuda in the pseudo-
epic is the name of a holy Himalayan stream south of
Kubera's lake, Nalini, perhaps the Ganges of Kailasa called
MandakinI, located just south of the Golden (haima)
Mountain, xiii. 19. 28 f., 84. .Other cases of river wives are
"Journal American Oriental Society, 30. 11.
of .the
'*
As the Ust at 102. 45 f. enumerates the holiest watering-places, it may be
xiii.
given here: Prabhasa, Manasa, Puslikarani, Mahat-saras, Naimisha (Tirtha),

Bahuda, Karatoyini ( = °toy{l), Gaya, Gayagiras (South Indian Hayagiras), Vipaga,
Sthulavaluka, Krishna, Ganga, Pancanada, Mahahrada, Gomati, Kaugiki, Pampa,
SarasvatI and Drishadvati (dual), Yamuna. The South Indian reading has for
Krishna, Ganga, and Pancanada, tushnlm-gangdm qandir-gangdm, which I take to be
localities. South Indian, xiii. 159. 46. The Bombay and Southern recensions of the
Ramayana, verse 4, 41, 13 (B) omit the southern Bahuda. The Punjab is its real
place, later transferred to north and south.
known to the epic poets. Thus the river Narmada became

the wife of king Purukutsa, xv. 20. 13. In xiii. 2. 18 and
38 f., the same river (modern Nerbudder) is said to have
fallen in love (cakame) with Duryodhana, son of Durjaya,
by whom she had a daughter, Sudarâna.^''' This girl's son
married OghavatI, daughter of Oghavat (Nriga's grand-
father), and half of her became a river. But this is not
altogether a novelty; the Cauvery is "half Ganges." The
girl Amba, whose conduct, in marked
contrast to that of
OghavatI, was crooked, continued in life half as a human
being and half as a crooked river.^^
The great sage of the epic bears the name 'River-born'
because he is the son of Ganges and Crutayudha is the son ;
of the god Varuna (vii. 92. 44 f.) by the river Parnaga.^^

Some rivers have themselves a mythological origin in that
they come from the juice of celestial trees (see the references
in the paper cited above in the Journal of the American
Oriental Society) but of earthly rivers the Chumbal (un-
;
known to Valmiki ?) has the most curious origin in that it

arose from the flood of secretions and blood flowing from the
multitudinous cattle slaughtered by the good king Rantideva,
^^
a legend referred to on several occasions.
Before speaking more particularly of the Ganges, which
ever remains the first of rivers, a word may be said in regard
1^
At a Tirtha on Narmada Yayati fell from heaven, and gods and saints hasten
there, iii. 89. 1 f.
" Nadi vatseshu kanyd ca, v. 186. 41. Kdugambi is the chief town of the Vatsas,
and Amba connected with ambu, 'water' (cf. Kugamba).
is
^*
Bhishma, son of Ganges, is called dpagdsiita, dpageya, nadija, i. 63. 91 95. 47; ;
iv. 39. 10; 61. 34 v. 148. 32, etc.

; SarasvatI also bore a son, Sarasvata, to Dadhica
and was blessed so that she "pleased the gods and manes with her waters and be-
came holiest of holy rivers," ix. 51. 17 f. 54. 38 f. The great-grandmother of the
;
famous Dushyanta was the Sarasvati, who at the end of a twelve-years' sacrifice
"chose Matinara as her husband and became the mother of Tansu" (Tunsu), i. 95.
27. The river who bore a daughter to a mountain (above) was called Cuktimatl
i. 63. 35 f., the name of both river and town of the Cedi. Her daughter married
Vasu.
" Compare vii. 67. 5 ; xii. 29. 123 ; xiii. QQ. 42, etc. The name Carmanvati
evidently suggested that it had a leathery, carman, origin. Such etymologies give
rise to various myths. The river Samanga referred to above is interpreted to mean
'with limbs complete' and thus makes whole the "eightfold cripple" Ashtavakra
who enters it, so that he reappears "with Hmbs complete," iii. 134. 39. This stream
used to be called Madhuvila, and Indra on bathing in it was released from the sin
of slaying Vritra, ibid. 135. 2.
to the half-mythological and allegorical rivers. Some of

these are frankly of the latter sort and deserve remark only
as illustrative of rhetoric, not as rivers.^"
But there is also an allegorical river which so runs into
and is wantonly confused with the mythological river of
death and of the underworld that it is difficult to disentangle
myth and allegory. Without any allegory the river of hell
is a filthy, blood-filled stream which is "one hard river to
cross," and hence is called Vaitaranl.^^ Now in the descrip-

tions of battles nothing is commoner than for the poet to
describe the river of blood shed by the valiant hero, and this
river then inspires a complete picture of the stream, the
various parts and implements of the army serving as meta-
phorical parts and adjuncts of the river, the birds upon it,
the fishes within it, the trees beside it, etc. Such rivers are
not merely allegorical. They "lead to Yama's home," as is
said in viii. 52. 33, and so coincide with the real, mythological
"
river of death." Thus a hero says that he will make a
river flowing to the other world, carrying thither corpses, as
in iv. 61. 20, "I will make a river to course to the other
world," of which the water is blood, the crocodiles are the
elephants slain in battle, etc. A
similar river in iv. 62. 17 is
"like the time at the end of the ages," that is, full of terror.
In viii. 77. 44, the battle-river "leads to the home of the
dead," but is "like VaitaranI, which is terrible and hard to
cross for those of imperfect soul so terrible and hard to ;
cross is it for cowards."

^^
The metaphorical use of rivers
20 "the river of illusion guarded by the gods" (i.e. life), v. 46.
Such, for example, is
7 ;
which one should bathe, since its water is truth, its Tirtha
or the "soul-river" in
is piety, its banks are steadfastness, and its waves are pity, v. 40. 20. This is only
another aspect of the "river of life," which is elsewhere described as ha\'ing desire
and wrath as its crocodiles, the five senses for its water, and "firmness is the boat
with which one may cross its awful stream," ibid. vs. 22. Compare the "Tirtha
of the mind" in xiii. 108. 1 f., "that pure pool of truth," which is the Manasa Lake
of the intelligent.
21
The hell-river of Yama, god of death, is called Pushpodaka in iii. 200. 58, which
may be said to be
only exclusive name, since its ordinary appellation, VaitaranI,
its
is shared, oddly enough, by one of the many sacred streams (in Kalinga). But
this section, iii. 200, appears to be an interpolation. Section 201 begins where 199
leaves off, with "having heard the story of Indradyumna," i.e., section 199; (this
verse, however, is bracketed in South Indian).
^ Rarer than this river allegory is the parallel forest allegory of battle. In Lx.
24. 52 it is confused with the flood metaphor: "He entered the flood of the foes'
is similar in the Ramayana, e.g., C vi. 58. 29 (not in text B),

' '
Yamasdgaragdminl, a battle-river going to the Hades-ocean.'*
THE GANGES
As a goddess, Ganges subservient to the Great Father,
is
whom she adores, i. 96. 4 ; and

in the passage cited above from
xiii. 146, in which her name is derived from her "going to
^^
earth," she is represented as humble before Uma, her
younger sister and co-wife of Civa.
In human form Ganges becomes the wife of Cantanu, i.
98. 5, and the mother of Gangeya (the *river-born') Bhi-
shma, i. 95. 47. She is called the "daughter of Jahnu," i. 98.
18 (Jahnusuta, also Jahnavi) and the "daughter of Bhagl-
ratha" but only by courtesy (adoption),
(also Bhaglrathi) ;
as she is
really the daughter of Himavat (Haimavati), vi.
119. 97. Among the gods she has acquired the title of Ala-
kananda (-atd) and on reaching the world of the dead she is
,
identified with the Vaitarani, i. 170. 22, also called there

Pushpodaka; see above, note 21.
In the geographical section of the sixth book of the epic,
vi. 6. 28 f., the threefold (three-pathed) Ganges, called
SarasvatI, is said to issue from the world of Brahman and to

fall like milk from the top of Mount Meru into the lake of the
moon (created first by her descent), after she had been
upheld for 100,000 years on Civa's head. Here she is said
to divide into seven streams, called Vasvaukasara, NalinI,
Pavani, Jambunadi, Sita, Ganga, and "seventh the Indus"
(Sindhu). She is both visible and invisible, vi. 6. 50. The
Nalini is especially Kubera's stream, though conceived, as
in Ramayana vi. 13. 12, as Brahman's also (cf. vii. 80. 27).
The Ramayana, 43. 12, has the Hladini
i. and Sucakshu for
the first and fourth in this list.
Bhaglratha was first enabled to draw her from Bindusaras,
where "she, the divine one, was first established" (revealed
forces, a forest of bows, where darts were the thorns, clubs were the stones, and cars
and elephants were the great trees" (following the reading of the South Indian text).
^ The name a derivative from to From similar roots
'
Ganga is really gd, go.'

meaning go, move, flow, etc., come the names of many rivers in India and else-
where, SarasvatI, Sarju, Indus, Rhine, Arethusa, etc. Each to its own people is
'the run' (river).

on earth, vi. G. 44 f. So in Ramayana i. 43. 10, the Ganges

fallsinto Bindusaras) Bhagiratlia visited Himavat and
.
asked Ganges to baptize the bones of Sagara's sons, saying,

"There is for them in heaven till thou baptizest
no abode
their bodies (bones) with thy waters," iii, 108. 18. The
Ramayana has a famous description of the descent of the
river at i. 43, Ganges is called the daughter of Bhagiratlia
because when weary she sank upon his lap and since she ;
had blessed the bones of the Sagaras she assumed by adoption

the place of his son ("she chose him for her father"), vii. 60.
6 and 8.^^ Compare the account in iii. 109. 18 f., where she
"descended to earth to fill the sea." Here the South Indian
recension inserts a passage (cf. Ramayana, i. 43. 5 f.) telling
of Ganges' anger at being forced to fall from the sky. It is
a very undignified addition i7i maiorem gloria m of Civa.
Ganges says if she has to go to hell to baptize the Sagaras
she will take Civa with her. But she gets caught in Civa's
hair for her folly and there wanders about for a long time
"like a grain of ripe corn in a field of grass." ^^
It is in falling that Ganges becomes divided sevenfold. As
the river of sky, earth, and the lower regions she is three-
^^
fold, "going through three worlds," "having three paths."
The mystic TrivenI, 'three-stranded' Ganges, is Ganges
bound together with the Yamuna and the Sarasvati, which
comes underground to the union, at Prayaga (Allahabad),
but this title is not epic, though venlkrtajald, 'having water
in strands,' is an epithet of 'three-path' Ganges, Rama-
yana, ii. 50. 16 (where she is described as "wife of Ocean").
For urva^ South Indian has urdhvagd, but this is not so good a reading. Com-
24
pare xii. 29. 68, where Nllakantha vouches for the word urvagi as implying the
lap {uru) also the similar derivation of urm as title of earth, from the fact that
;
Kagyapa took her (earth) on his lap, xii. 49. 73. To take upon the lap is to imply
parentage.
2^
The addition in the South Indian text also retells the story how the Sagaras
attacked Kapila and were burned by his glance, and describes Dillpa's succession
to the throne and his character (cf. Vishnu Purana, iv. 4. 1 f.). The story is often
told, i. 106 f. iii. 142. 9 (Ganges falls on the head of Civa, Vrishanka)
; v. 111. 8, etc. ;
When Ganges is described as "girdling the sky," gaganamekhald,

falling, iii. 109. 9
(the Milky Way). Compare Ramayana, iii. 52. 35.
2^
Trilokagd, i. 96. 19; irivartmagd, xiii. 26. 84; tripathagd, ii. 52. 11; Rama-
yana, i. 44. 6; vi. 126. 47; tripathagdminl, i. 98. 8. A Tirtha called Sapta-Ganga
ismentioned along with a Tri-Ganga, iii. 84. 29 ; xiii. 25. 6 and 16 (cf the Saptasa-
.
rasvata Tirtha).
It is rather curious that the sanctity of Prayaga is not fully
estabhshed. Bhishma has doubts in regard to the value of

Tirthas anyway, as is mentioned several times, for example
in xiii. 25. 5, but it is especially said that "it is not in accord-
ance with the word of the Veda" to visit Prayaga with the
idea of dying there as at a sacred spot, iii. 82. 6 85. 82 ;
and 83. This heresy, however, is introduced merely to be

overthrown. The
holiness of Prayaga, in fact, leads to gro-
tesque exaggeration in deifying the river, which is wor-
shipped by gods and seers. The glory of Ganges at this
point exceeds even that of the Yamuna (i.e. Jumna, the
goddess sister of Yama). Part of this piety is repeated
ijpsissimis verbis in another glorification of the river in
the thirteenth book (below). Prayaga is the base or lap
{jaghana, wpastha) of the earth, and a bath there imparts
virtue equal to that given by the four Vedas. Ganges is
here the one Tirtha of this (Kali) age, iii. 85. 75 and 90. A
meeting of two armies is compared to the furious confluence
of Ganges and Jumna or of Ganges and Sarayu, at the full
water of the early rains, vii. 17. 49 and 95. 8, compare
Ramayana, v. 43. 15. At Prayaga the Ganges is called
Civodakd (Ramayana, ii. 83. 22), probably not 'Civa's
water' but 'beneficent.' Jars of "the water of Ganges at its
union with Jumna" are used at the coronation described in
Ramayana ii. 14. 34 15. 5. The two are invoked together
;
by Sita, the Ganges as "wife of Ocean," Udadhirdja, to-

gether with all the "divinities of the fords," Ramayana,
ii. 52, 82 f. Ganges is especially the "home of seers and
ascetics," ibid. vii. 42. 33, and "destroyer of sin," ibid. 46. 23.
The modern ghats (landing places) of Benares may be
referred to in iii. 145. 50 f., where it is said that the seven-
fold {-vidhd) Ganges {ibid. 139. 2) after flowing by {ami)
the great jujube tree in Kailasa, has easy fords, cool water,
and lotuses; "and gems, corals, and trees adorn its stairs"
{prastdra). The commentator says that prastdra is 'ghats,'
and as corals do not grow in the river he is probably right.
According to i. 228. 32 the huge fishes called jhashas swîm
in the Ganges.^^
^'^
It will be observed that nowhere in the epic is there found support for the
slander that live children are thrown to the crocodiles of the Ganges. That bath-
Generally the sevenfold character of Ganges is explained as

consisting in the seven forms of distinct rivers. At vi. 119.
76 and vii. 36. 13 it is indeed said that Ganges enters the
ocean sevenfold and makes a vortex there, but this may be
only the equivalent of the statement in i. 170. 19 f., that
Ganges comes from Himavat and enters the ocean by seven
streams, "and one is purified from sin who drinks the
waters of Ganges, Yamuna, SarasvatI (Plakshajata), Ra-
thastha, Sarayii, Gomati, or Gandakl." This list differs, as
already observed from the seven streams of vi. 6. 50, there
called "the seven Gangas famous in the three worlds." Yet
there is still a later division known to the Ramayana, i. 43.
12 f. the three rivers Hladinl, PavanI, Nalini, are the three
;
Ganges of the east Sucakshu, Sita, and Sindhu are the three
;
western Ganges, and the seventh is she who became Bha-

"^^
glratha's daughter.
The most sacred spots of the Ganges are, and always have
been Gangotri, the place of origin in the mountains the ;
Gate;-^ the junction of Ganges and Yamuna; and the place
ing in the stream purifies from sin is everywhere admitted, e.g., iii. 85. 66 and 69;
no Tirtha is equal to Ganges, ihid. 96. The "golden sands" of Ganges {suvarnasi-
katd) are seen near the jujube (Tirtha), where the water, "which used to be cold,
is now warm," iii. 90. 26. Compare, for the ghats, the tlraruha trees in the descrip-
tion at Ramayana ii. 50. 19. Here too Ganges {ibid. 24) is divjjCi papandgim, 'divine
destroyer of sin.' Mr. Birdwood's remark, in the letter referred to above (p. 217),
"Sanscritists say . that there are intimations of it [the superior sanctity of the
. .
Ganges] in the epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana," is putting the case too
mildly. The mother of Ganges, according to the Ramayana i. 35. 16, is Manorama
by name Mena), 'daughter of Mount Meru,' who was the wife of Hima-
(var. lee.
vat (Himalaya) and bore him two daughters, Ganga and her (younger) sister Uma
(wife of Civa). Mena or Menaka is the mother of Ganges according to Puranic
legend, and Manorama is probably the same person, though usually these names
are applied to different nymphs (Apsarasas). Compare also ix. 37. 37-55 and 38.
3 f. on SarasvatI, Manorama, etc., and the Sapta Savasvata.
2^
The Sucakshu is probably the Oxus (above). These are different streams,
"
srofdnsi, which went to the eastern (and western) district," while Ganges, the
"
seventh, followed Bhaglratha." At this place the anger of Jahnu at being
disturbed by Ganges* flood is described. The great saint swallowed the river
but then let her out through his ears on condition that she should be recognized
as his issue. Therefore, because she came from him, she was called the "daughter
of Jahnu." The Hladinl is west of the Sutlej (Ramayana, ii. 71. 2).
^"
The place known as Ganga-dvara, 'Ganges-gate" (now known as Haridvara,
Hardwar) a place of pilgrimage, as are the other sacred spots in the course
is still
of the river. The
epic speaks in one place of the gate Ganga-Mahadvara, and
says that the spot is guarded by Dhamas, that is, "Mahatmas of unknown ap-
pearance who speak the truth." It is peculiar, however, that this place is regarded
where the river debouches into the gulf of Bengal. In xiii.

26 there is a whole chapter devoted to Ganges, who is
said (vs. 88) to bear gold in her bosom to have three paths
;
by which the three worlds are embellished (vss. 72 and 84,

cf. the tristhdna of Civa, where the river turns north, xiii.
25. 15) and, by descending upon the head of Civa, to

;
have saved the sons of Sagara (vss. 72 and 80). Ganges

cures all bodily infirmities (vs. 82) and all sins even the ;
sight of her waters removes sin and saves one's ancestors

to the seventh generation (vs. 61 f.). On beholding her one
is freed from sin, as snakes lose their poison at sight of Tark-
shya (Garuda). She is to men what ambrosia is to the gods,

svadhd to the Manes, and sudhd to the Nagas (vss. 44 and 49).
She is to other rivers what the sun is to the gods, the moon
to the Manes, the god-lord (devega, king) to men (vs. 74).
She is identical with Prigni (Nllakantha says this is "mother
of Vishnu"), and with Brihati (Vac). She is daughter of
the Earth-upholder (Avanidhra, Himavat), wife of Civa,
and mother of Guha (Skanda). She is called Vishnupadi
(this may imply the otherwise late legend, Ramayana, ii. 50.
26 Vishnu Purana, iv. 4. 15, that she came from Vishnu's
;
toe), and she was brought to earth by Bhaglratha (vss. 86-

89, 93 and 96). They never lose heaven whose bones have
been laid within her waters and one may live as a sinner
;
and yet die blessed if one ends his life beside her sacred
stream, for "as long as one's bones lie in Ganges, so long
is one magnified in heaven" (vs. 28 f.).^°
as so far north that "farther (north) than Ganga-Mahadvara no (mere) man has
ever gone," v. 111. 17 and 19. Possibly Hardwar is not meant, but the exit of
Ganges from the caverns of the momitain at Gangotri, where the river has its
' '
udbheda, breaking out,' among Civa's locks,' that is, amid the icicles at the
mouth of the cave. Ganga-dvara (wathout the mahd, 'great') is, in xiii. 166. 26,
one of the holy places of pilgrimage.
*"
In iii. 99. 32, Ganges comes from the locks of Civa (Cambhu), whose wife she
is (above) but as in iii. 187. 19 and Ramayana, ii. 50. 25, samudramahishi, she is
;
also called "the dear wife of Ocean," who receives her. Like a mother "she floods
the Deccan district, running down the slopes of the hills like the wife of the king
of snakes." In iii. 139. 16, after a general invocation to gods and other rivers,
Ganges is thus addressed "O goddess Ganges, from the golden mountain of Indra
:
(Mandara) I hear thy sound. O Subhaga (blessed one), do thou who art daugh-
ter of the mountains {qailasutd), guard this king from the (perils of the) mountains
and give him, as he enters them, thy protection." "The kapild cow is the best
of cows, even as Ganges is the very best of rivers," xiii. 73. 42 ; 77. 8.
The names or titles of Ganges are not confined to the seven

synonyms given above, nor to the common patronymics,
Bhagirathi, Jahnavl, and Haimavatl. As a heavenly stream
she is called Mandakini (a name shared by earthly rivers,
cf. Ramayana, ii. 95 and 103), Mahabharata, v. 111. 12, etc.
Cuka sees the "lovely Mandakini" as he sails through space,

and sees also the naked nymphs that sport in the stream,
xii. 334.16. In xiii. 80. 5 this heavenly river is called Man-
dakini vasor dhdrd, 'stream of wealth,' and is the haunt of
nymphs and angels. The Ganges also gives her name to
Skanda, who like Bhishma was at first called Gangeya (cf.
Kumarasu), and one of his four forms, called Naigameya,
revered her especially, ix. 44. 16 and 38. It is as the
heavenly Ganges that she is revered under the name of
Akaga-Ganga, iii. 142. 11, 'Ganges of the air,' and the
South Indian recension (i. 186. 2) gives her the further title,
"the river of the world," Lokanadi. She is called also 'the
river of the gods,' Devanadi mahaganga, iii. 156. 98 (on
Gandhamadana), and Suranadi, which has the same mean-
ing "As the sweet water of Suranadi becomes salt on reach-
:
ing the ocean, "vi. 83. 5, and Ramayana, i. 35. 25. As the
underground river she is also called Vaitarani.
Ganges is often represented as appearing to men and re-
proving, advising, or helping them. Thus in v. 178. 68 f.,
"she who is courted by saints and angels" advises her son
Bhishma not to fight with Rama and asks each in turn to
desist from battle; while in the following story she "stands
in water" {jale sthitd) and reproves Amba for her crooked
ways, V. 186. 30, Neither the holiness of the goddess nor
filial piety, however, prevents the fight in the prior tale, and
then Ganges appears like a Greek goddess on her son's chariot,

aiding him in the fight, though still described as "best of
rivers." Along with her were eight attendant saints blazing
like the sun or fire, who helped her support Bhishma, so that
he did not touch the earth. Then, when his charioteer fell,
his goddess mother controlled the steeds with her own hand
and guarded him, until in warrior shame he begged her not
to intervene, v. 182. 12 f.
No passage in the epic or anywhere else shows more clearly
how thoroughly natural phenomena were personified by
th-e Hindus. is not a remote celestial personifica-

Ganges
tion. The within sight of the poet as he writes
river is ;
by the side of the warrior of whom he sings. She is still

th estream she still "stands in water"; yet at the same
;
time she holds the reins of the warrior's steeds. Nothing

coidd be more personal and humanly divine than Jahnavi,
'daughter of Jahnu,' as here depicted.
More conventional is the conduct of Ganges when Bhishma
is wounded unto death. She sends the great seers to salute
and comfort him on his death-bed, from her far-off home
in the mountains. They fly as swans to the dying hero and
with their wings cool his fevered face, vi. 119. 97. But this
hero takes long to die, and the lament of Ganges comes in
more appropriately on his actual decease, at xiii. 169. 21 f.,
when she is consoled by the news that her hero was really
a god, who for a curse had been born as a man {vasur esha
mahdtejds, etc., ibid. vs. 31).
As a river goddess she here rises from the Ganges River,
where the obsequies of her son are performed, and "weeps
bitterly, overcome with grief," asking passionately why her
heart does not break when her warrior son is dead, and
proudly recounts his glorious deeds. It is a little surprising
that so great a goddess does not know that her son is a Vasu
god but here also the womanly character submerges the
;
divine, and the revelation is made to her by a still greater

divinity, Vishnu himself in human form.
New Haven,
August, 1911.
THE TWO GREAT NATURE SHRINES OF
ISRAEL: BETHEL AND DAN
John Punnett Peters
St. Michael's Church, New York

Let me commence with an extract from the diary of my
second journey to Palestine, bearing date August 5, 1902, when
I approached Bethel by the road from the north "A little
:
beyond Yabrud we came to the top of all things. Behind us

the mountains were like the waves of a stormy cross sea, with
a white village perched here and there on their tops, like
foam on the crests of the waves. To the west, beyond a
series of mountain tops, stretched far below the blue Medi-
terranean. To the south, descending, there was a great
plateau, in which in the distance Jerusalem lay spread out in
imposing state. Only to the east we could see no whither,

as the land was still as high as we or higher. Just a little
lower than we, and close at hand was Beitin. And now I
thought I understood why Bethel had been so great a high
place. To the north of the village, and a little above, almost
on the roof of the world, was a stone field of marvellously
piled up natural stone heaps. Until I went in and exam-
ined them I really thought they had been built by man. I
could imagine that one of these was Jacob's stone, and here
the ladder into heaven, and this the site of the famous shrine
of Bethel ;but I could find no signs of ancient occupation,
no remains of old walls, no whitish ruin soil, so distinct from
the red virgin earth, no pieces of pottery, not even fragments
of worked flint. Some distance to the east, across a deep
ravine from Beitin, lie some ruins known as the Burj, but
these are late. In the village itself the only ancient remains
are part of the walls of a very large pool, now used as the
village threshing floor. To the west of the village are visible
231
232 NATURE SHRINES OF ISRAEL
the foundations of a wall. On the road to Bireh, below

Beitin but close to it, were some interesting remains of pools,
a rock-cut aqueduct, troughs, etc., intended to utilize springs
which come out of the rocks. There was also a grotto of
considerable size cut in the rock, with rock-hewn pillars sup-
porting the roof, and niches, as though for statues, a little
way from the door on both sides. The whole reminded me
of the grotto of Pan at Banias."
I came near to the truth in this account, but I was still
hampered by a mistaken idea of what I ought to find at
Bethel. Twelve years before, fresh from my explorations
in Babylonia and along the Euphrates, I had visited the place
and had searched the neighborhood for the remains of an
ancient temple. I came away at that time with a sense of
disappointment, because I found no ruins of any apparent
moment. It had not occurred to me to examine the natural
phenomena of the place. I had not approached it by the
same route, and those had not forced themselves on my at-
tention. But even if they had, I doubt whether at that time
I should have perceived their significance, because I was still
under the bondage of traditional ideas with regard to the in-
terpretation of Jacob's vision in Gen. xxviii., and with regard
to the nature of the temple and the worship at Bethel. Now,
my attention aroused, I went back not once, but several times,
and searched Bethel and the whole country thereabout most
carefully.
In the visit recorded above I had noticed troughs, rough
cuttings in caves along the road southward and westward
from Beitin, between that and Bireh. These I found, in
looking up sources, had been overlooked or very cursorily
examined and described by former travellers. On them,
commencing with the cave or grotto nearest Bireh and about
half-way between that and Beitin, I made the following
notes, dated August 19, 1902 :
"These are called by Guerin and Robinson 'Ain er-Ghazal,

a name which we could not hear. Baedeker mentions their
existence, and says that they were called 'Ayun Haramiyeh
in the Middle Ages. The Survey of the Palestine Explora-
tion Fund notes at this spot 'Ain Kussis and 'tombs.' There
are no tombs, and the proper name is 'Ain Kus'a. There is
JOHN PUNNETT PETERS 233
a terrace of natural rock, from eight to twelve feet above the

present road. To this steps were cut on the western side.
In the face of the rock above this terrace, following, appar-
ently, a rotten vein through which water oozed, a channel
seven feet high and three feet broad has been cut in the rock
for about ten feet, when it turns sharply to the east and runs
a little distance further. In the bottom of this are six to ten
inches of water. From its mouth channels carry water to an
extensive system of rock-cut basins of all sorts, shapes, and
sizes, to the east. A much deeper and broader channel leads
to the edge of the terrace or platform, then turns westward
at a right angle, and conducts the water into the side of a
cave, the door of which opens on the present road, being cut
in the face or scarp of the rock which forms the terrace above.
This cave isabout forty feet east and west, by twenty-five
feet north and south, and the roof is supported by two col-
umns hewn out of the living rock. In front of it in the road
is visible the coping of a circular pool, a beautiful piece of
masonry. A little fiu'ther on [i.e. eastward], in the face of
the rock, under the system of rock-cut basins mentioned
above, was another spring oozing out of a rot or flaw in the
rock, which had been hollowed out artificially for some dis-
tance. The water from this was caught in a rock-cut trough,
beneath which was another rock-cut trough, and on both
sides the copings of rectangidar pools are visible in the pres-
ent road. There is another small cave, dry, and two or
three niches in the rock face at this level, which have given
rise to the statement of the Survey that there are tombs at
this place. These are in reality, I fancy, the commencement
or intention of large caves, like the one mentioned above.
Tombs are relatively rare in this section. There is a large
one across the wady southward, some little distance to the
east, and one or two small ones elsewhere in this valley, but,
speaking roughly, they are infrequent and inconspicuous.
The stream which runs into the large cave seems to be in-
termittent at this season, as I have seen it running and seen
it dry. The cave is full of mud and water, in which grow
beautiful ferns. Near the steps above mentioned, on the
edge of the scarp, a wine press was hewn in the rock, with two
steps descending into it. The front of the vat is now broken
down. Against the stone wall by the side of the road, about
opposite the mouth of the large cave, lies a large stone olive
press. This extraordinary system of rock-cut waterworks
and the like lies about midway between Bireh and Beitin,
villages which have an abundant water supply of their own,
in the neighborhood of no village or ruin. About five min-
utes to the east of these waterworks, on the right of the
road, is a very well-built oval pool, served by an under-
ground channel from a spring on the hillside above [to the
left of the road], dry at this season. This has no name that
we could learn. About ten minutes further, as one ascends
the hill toward Beitin, on the right-hand side of the road, is
another spring, oozing out of a fault in the base of the rock,
the water of which is or was caught in a pool inferior in work-
manship to those mentioned above. The Survey calls this
pool 'Ain es-Sultan; we heard the name 'Ain Aqabeh."
^
Of Bethel itself and the curious stone formations in its

immediate neighborhood I made, as already stated, a num-
ber of very careful investigations. The following memoran-
dum from my diary, bearing date of August 21, 1902, may
supplement the description already given :
"Finding nothing new at Beitin, we crossed the beautiful

and highly cultivated valley to the east, among the fig trees
of which, on the sides of the hill, there were, they told us,
some tombs, which we could not see, to Burj Beitin, on the
hill beyond. Here there was a church, and the stone orna-
mentation found fixes this in the fifth or sixth century a.d.
Out of these ruins the Arabs presumably built the small
castle, the ruins of which constitute the present Burj. Then
we circled around on the hill [to the north and west] to the
strange stone circles or masses to the north of Beitin. These
are masses of rock worn into strange shapes by the weather,
looking in many cases as though hewn by the hand of man,
or as though at least man had set one stone upon another.
I presume that it is this field of stones, with its weird and
artificial aspect, which gave rise to the story of Jacob's pil-
low and pillar at Bethel. None of us could find any signs of
^
I had the pleasure Rev. Mr. Hanauer and Mr. Mac-
of calling the attention of
alister to these springs and waterworks, which they examined carefully, publishing
their accounts in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1903.
working of the stones. Here and at Burj Beitin,

artificial
strangely enough, I found fragments of corrugated Roman

pottery, but pottery fragments were scarce at both places,
and in the stone field the soil was red, virgin earth."
In general the natural phenomena of Bethel and its neigh-
borhood may be thus described. Bethel is on the southern
slope of the crest of the watershed between north and south,
2890 feet above the sea. Just north of it the watershed
rises in the form of a rocky crest, sharply marked, the ground
falling off rapidly to north and south. This is a genuine
climax, to transliterate the Greek word (kXi/xu^) by which
the ladder of Gen. xxviii. translated in the Septuagint.
is A
little below this crest, on its southern slope, a few rods east-
ward of the highroad and northward of the modern village
of Beitin, is the remarkable stone group just described, a
fieldrather than a circle of stone columns. Beyond this,

eastward, the land drops, forming the commencement of the
wady, which, passing to the east of Bethel, forms the natural
road down into the Jordan valley. Across this wady, at
its very head, there is another smaller group of similar rock
columns.
Bethel itself is admirably situated, not for defence, but as
a centre of pilgrimage. A natural road to the Jordan valley
debouches, as already stated, at or immediately below the
town, where a road from the Mediterranean plain over the
Beth-Horon pass connects with it. It is also on the natural
highroad from north to south. There is an excellent supply
of water at Bethel itself, not to speak of the various fountains
southward, which I have already mentioned, with their
curious rock-cuttings. On the other hand there are in all
that neighborhood no evidences of any great walled town or
any large temple building, such as distinguished Jerusalem ;
nor, in point of fact, should we expect these things at Bethel.

The political and under Jeroboam
religious revolt of Israel
was a revolt against what was represented by Jerusalem and
its temple. It was a call back to the simplicity of the past
and church, in protest against the Phoenician temple,
in state
palace,and citadel of Solomon. Now while the Jerusalem
temple was built on a height, utilizing a natural rock altar
with a grotto beneath it as its central feature, it was
never a nature shrine. It achieved its significance by its
great temple erected, after Phoenician models, by Phoenician

workmen. This temple, connected with the palace of the
king, was an essential feature of the magnificent Oriental
despotism which Solomon undertook to establishing Israel.
It symbolized and was connected with the standing army,
the foreign guards, the compulsory service (kourbash) of the
people, and especially those not of the tribe of Judah.
Israel was not ripe for such conditions, and, rebelling
against them, asserted its ancient tribal and local freedom,
and at the same time and for the same reason on the religious
side reverted to the old primitive, nature, out-of-door worship,
in opposition to the artificial Phoenician temple worship of
Jerusalem. But if a kingdom was to be established with any
sort of organization, capable of holding its own against the
organized kingdom of the Davidic dynasty, with its grand
new temple, it was necessary to localize this primitive worship
and centralize it as much as possible within the limits of the

kingdom of Israel. Famous nature shrines there were with
which Israel was connected by tradition, like Beersheba or
Horeb or Sinai, but these lay outside of Israel, and the way
to them led past Jerusalem. Within the kingdom itself
there were two great nature shrines, —
Bethel, at the extreme
south, and Dan, at the extreme north, the former, and
presumably the latter, recognized before the time of the
Israelites as places of the special indwelling of God, by
reason of their peculiar nature formations, the one con-
necting itself with stone worship, the other with water or
fountain worship.
In Jacob's vision in Genesis xxviii., as recorded by E, un-
doubtedly in this particular the older of the two sources com-
bined in the present narrative, we have a very vivid descrip-
tion of the natural features of Bethel.^ The word sullam,
translated 'ladder' in this narrative, is a uTra^ Xeyo/xevov in
Hebrew. It occurs, however, in late Hebrew and
classical
Aramaic, Phoenician, and Arabic, meaning a ladder or a
*Gen. 20-22. The narration of J is contained in verses

xxviii. 11, 12, 17, 18,
10, 13, 14, 16, 19a. For further descriptions of situation cf. Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 3 Josh,
;
vii. 2, vnii. 9-12, xii. 9. In Judges iv. 5, we find that the Palm of Deborah was near
Bethel.
ladder-like ascent or height. It isthe name applied to the

promontory southward of Tyre, known to-day as the 'lad-
der of Tyre,' and also to the passage of the Euphrates through
the Taurus Mountains. It appears to indicate in these cases
a natural, steplike ascent, precisely such as we have at
Bethel. The great divide above Bethel was a sullam or
ladder, a great stage-tower, if we may so put it, where
Jacob, the ancient sage and hero, held communion with
God, because this ladder was at one of the doors from heaven
to earth. And here, at the foot of this ladder, Jacob erected
stones of memorial, because there he saw the heavenly high
place.
The erection of stones of memorial or testimony was a cus-
tom of the most remote antiquity, as of the present time. One
need only refer to such a passage as Gen. xxxi. 47 f. in proof
of their ancient use in Palestine. To-day one finds such
stones of testimony or memorial all over the country. At
the point where a Moslem first catches sight of a well or
shrine he erects such a pile, saying, "Oh !
so-and-so, as I
bear testimony to you now, so bear testimony for me in the
day of judgment." As you come up the road from the
Philistine plain by way of Beth-Horon, at the point where
you first catch sight of Jerusalem, there is a great number of
such heaps, — more, I think, than I observed at any other
one spot.
In shape these pillars of testimony or stones of memorial
are identical with the curious natural columns in the stone
field north of Bethel. The stones in these pillars of testi-
mony are simply set dry upon one another. They are of dif-
ferent sizes and shapes sometimes a larger stone is set upon
;
a smaller, but the natural tendency is to taper upward. In

shape they are identical with the natural columns in the
field north of Bethel, although the latter are many times
larger. So exactly, however, do these resemble memorial

pillars in shape and general appearance that, unless one exam-
ines them closely, one can scarcely be induced to believe that
they are not made of separate stones artificially placed one
upon the other, but are really the result of erosion of a rock
field. To the ordinary eye they present an appearance as
though some one with many times the strength of an ordinary
man had piled up huge boulders for pillars of testimony.
Precisely this it was which the pre-Israelites and the Israelites

believed had been done by Jacob, the mighty hero of the
past. When, in the vision of the night, he realized that he
was at the foot of the ladder of God, where heaven and earth
were joined, he took stones and set them one upon another
as pillars of testimony.
Recent excavations at Gezer have made us familiar with
one ancient out-of-door temple and have shown us how small
a part buildings made with hands played in that ancient
worship. It was my good fortune, 190'2, to be present and
in
watch the excavation of that temple by Mr. Macalister.
From my notes of September 23, 1902, 1 extract the follow-
ing, describing the stone temple as I saw it :
"It commences on the south side with two huge stones,

slightly turned one toward the other. Between these is a much
smaller phallic stone, rubbed smooth on the top and upper
sides by much kissing, touching, and anointing, apparently.
This seems to have been the original sacred stone, by which
the two huge stones had been set on either side to form, as
it were, a sanctuary for it. To the north of these stretched
a line of five stones of different sizes, some of them very large
and phallic in shape. I can only suggest that these were
added from time to time in token of reverence. All about
these stones, especially on the western side and near the orig-
inal phallic stone, were found quantities of phalli of dif-
ferent sizes, almost all of stone. At a lower level and to the
east of the stones is a large cave with several openings. - - At
one point on this side were burials of infants in jars. - - To
the west of the row of pillars, and in front, I think, of the
fourth one north from the phallus, was a huge square block
of quarried stone, with a square basin in the top. - - The
worshippers appear to have approached on the west, and on
that side especially were found the votive, cr ritual, phalli of
stone and pottery."
As at Gezer, so, I fancy, it was at Bethel. Whatever there
may have been in the way of original building was insignifi-
cant, and played an unimportant part. The stones were the
objects of worship they constituted the temple and its shrines,
;
in which dwelt God or the gods. Somewhere at Bethel I

suppose, stood the golden bull, by which the worship of that

sanctuary was technically connected with Yahaweh. There
probably were also booths or huts for the accommodation
of priests and prophets, but there were no important struc-
tures. The worshippers camped about in the open. They
came to the stones and presumably touched them with their
hands and kissed them. Some one stone, I fancy, was a spe-
cial mazzebah, the others constituting the surrounding shrines
or sanctuaries, as at Gezer. At the latter place, as already
noted, we can still identify the original mazzebah, because it
has been rubbed smooth by the anointing, kissing, and
handling of the worshippers. But that was protected from
the weather under a great mass of earth. The stones of Bethel,
through all these ages, have been exposed to wind and weather,
and any marks of handling have long since been worn away.
When
the nature of the great Israelite temple at Bethel
and the character of its worship are once realized, a new
significance is given to the frequent use of the word Rock as
a title of God in Hebrew literature and particularly in He-
brew poetry, which naturally preserves the older forms and
uses,^ Rock worship was, as we know, common in Israel,
as it had been through all that region in earlier times, as it
was in primitive Greece, in Ireland, England, and in fact
among primitive peoples the world over. Sacred stones, in
which there was a special presence of God, are still used in
many parts of the land, but for Israel this stone worship
found its most striking expression and, so to speak, its can-
onization in Bethel.^
If inBethel we find stone worship canonized, similarly in
Dan we find a canonization of the worship of God as the
life-giving power, expressing himself in the outpouring of
the waters from the deep beneath the earth. I venture
again to quote from my diary under date of July 24, 1902,
an account of a visit to Tel Kadi and Banias :
^
Cf. Ps. xviii. 2, xxviii. 1 ; Deut. xxxii. 4, 18, 30, 31 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 32, xxiii. 3;
Is. xvii. 10, xliv. 8.Cf. also the proper names in Num. i. 5, 6, 10, iii. 35, xxxiv. 28.
Gen. xlix. 24 may be a direct reference to Bethel. If 1 Sam. xxx. 27 really refers to
Bethel, then in this case Bethel and Bethsur seem to be synonymous. Cf. LXX.
*
For the great sanctity of this place through the whole of: preexilic history cf.
Gen. XXXV. 1-16; 1 Sam. vii. 16, x. 3; 1 Ki. xii. 29-33; 2 Ki. ii. 2f., 23; Amos
vii. 13, and many other passages in Amos and Hosea.
*'Tel Kadi was a delightful surprise. It is a hill about

1000 feet long and one-third as wide, rising at the southern
end perhaps 70 to 100 ^ feet above the plain, at the northern
a little less, and lower in the middle. It is covered with a
thick growth of trees. Out of the west side come many-
springs uniting in one large stream, and out of the very-
centre of the tel gushes a still finer stream with a great roar.
' '
The whole air is full of the sound of water pipes calling to
one another, as the 42d Psalm has it. That psalm was
composed by the side of one of these great rushing, roaring
sources of the Jordan, presumably at the ancient temple of
Dan, which stood hereabout. Near where this stream
throws itself over the edge of the tel to the south, by the grave
®
of a Moslem sheikh, under a couple of magnificent terebinth
trees we rested. - -
By the side of the stream at the southern
end of the tel is its highest point, and here are rough remains
of older buildings of basalt blocks. But in general the tel
shows a brown, virgin-colored earth, not the whitish soil
characteristic of all old ruin sites in this country. A little
over half an hour to the east, up in a nook on a low terrace
in the mountain, another spring bursts [or rather several
springs] out of the ground in front of a huge cave. These

springs are not so impressive in volume as those at Tel
Kadi, and the roar and rush is less. On the other side the
position, just below a great cave in the side of a cliff,
is
grand; and this site was holy in the Greek period. A

grotto to Pan was cut out by the side of the great cave,
above which is a niche for a statue. Two other niches with
statues stood a little lower down. Underneath all of these
were inscriptions and reliefs cut in the rock these have been;
effaced, presumably by the Arabs, but a few letters have

been deciphered, enough to show their general purport.
Under the niche next west from the grotto I made out, as I
thought, a ram. Above the cave, a little to the west, is a
Moslem weli, showing that the sanctity of the place has
lingered on to the present day. It is somewhat of a ques-
tion whether this rather than Tel Kadi was not the site of the
old temple of Dan."
^
Authorities give it variously, I find, as from 30 to 78 feet and over, apparently
^
varying according to the point at which they view it. Really oak, I believe.
In relation to the site of Dan as of Bethel travellers and

writers on the antiquities of Palestine have, I think, been led
astray by a false conception of the nature of the remains of
the ancient temple and town which were to be sought at that
spot. Doubtless the whole neighborhood of the sources was
sacred, but I am
inclined after most careful consideration ^
to think, from the situation itself, as well as from the Bible
references, that the Israelite sanctuary was by the great
fountain Leddan on Tel Kadi.^ George Adam Smith in-
clines toward Banias, because there is no evidence about Tel
Kadi of walls, fortifications, and the like. We should expect
them at this site no more than at Bethel. The very essence
of this sanctuary was, so to speak, its openness. It was a
nature sanctuary.
Bethel plays a large part in Bible story, Dan a small one.
That is owing, I presume, not to any inferiority of sanctity
in Dan, but to the position of Bethel in relation to Samaria
and Jerusalem, especially the latter, the source from which
our knowledge of the history and the remains of the litera-
ture of Israel is There is, however, one little col-
derived.
lection of psalms which
in we have, I believe, an echo of the
sanctity of Dan, and fragments of the songs which were sung
at the great pilgrim festivals held there. Obscured as it is by
later revisions made for the purpose of adapting it to the use
of the Jerusalem temple. Psalm xlii. still throbs with the
memory of the waters and fountains that rush and roar at
Dan; and Psalm xlvi., of the same collection of the psalms
of the sons of Korah, celebrates the sanctuary whose claim
"
to sanctity was that it lay at the source of the river whose
streams make glad the city of God, the shrine of the dwell-
ing place of the Highest."
^
Before visiting the place I had favored the site at Banias.My visit in 1902,
when I spent several days in the neighborhood, and my subsequent studies, have
caused a change of view.
" "
8
Can Tel Kadi be the little hill or hill of Mizar in Psalm xlii. ?
ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK
MYTHOLOGY
William Hayes Ward
New York City
In an article contributed to the current volume in honor

of Professor Charles A. Briggs, I have attempted to show
how the chief Hittite, or Asianic, deities passed over into
the Ionian and Greek mythology and kept to a great extent
their Oriental form and attributes. I urged that very little
influence came either from Phoenicia or from Egypt, and
very little directly from either Babylonia or Assyria, but
that whatever influence came from Babylonia was trans-
mitted to the Ionian coast through Hittite and Mitannian
mediums. Indeed, it is clear, I think, that almost nothing
was derived from the Semitic Assyrians, who accepted more
from their northern neighbors than they gave.
While special interest attaches to the chief three or four
Hittite deities and their transfer to the Greek religion, there
are yet other lines of connection which perhaps have not
been sufficiently considered, and to some of these it is the
purpose of this paper to call attention.
The Greek ideas of the lower world, the world of the dead,
deserve some study. They come down to us from the story
of the Trojan War. Were they Asianic ?
The Greek mythology gives us an underworld where the
good live in bliss, and the wicked suffer punishment where ;
the ruler and judge is Hades, also called Pluto. He sits on

his throne as ruler of the shades, holding his sceptre as his
mark of authority, and three judges stand by him as assessors,
Minos, Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys. He has a wife Perseph-
one, whom he seized by force. There is classical authority
for the belief that he was the original god of the Caucones,
who dwelt, according to Strabo, on the seacoast of Bithynia
243
244 ASTANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY
and Paphlagonia thai is, he was an Asianic rather than

;
a Greek divinity. His three assessors, or judges, Minos,

Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys, are credited to Crete, where
they are said to have Hved at a period three generations
before the Trojan War. We now know that the flourishing
Minoan period of Knossos and Crete, as excavated by Evans
and others, goes far back of the Achsean immigration. It
had close relations with both Asia Minor and Egypt, the two
seats of culture, but developed its own peculiar civilization.
Equally with Greece, the Babylonians placed a god and
a goddess in control of the lower world. Their notion of
the lower world was much the same as that of the Greeks,
but very little like that of the Egyptians. If the Greek
doctrine was derived from any outside source, it was from
Asia and not from Egypt. Both the Greeks and the Baby-
lonians had their stones of the descent into the lower world.
We have that of Ishtar and Hasisadra on the one side, and
those of Herakles, Theseus, and Odysseus on the other.
Such stories and such beliefs must have had a common origin.
The two rulers of the Greek underworld. Hades (or Pluto)
and Persephone, are the parallels to Nergal and Allat as the
rulers of the Babylonian realm of the shades. As Nergal
obtained his spouse by violence, such was the rape of Per-
sephone by Pluto. The Babylonian story was very old, for
we have it apparently figured on two seals of a period as old
as the elder Sargon (see Ward, The Seal Cylinders of Western
Asia, pp. 149-151, figs. 399, 400). In one of these seals
Nergal, identified as a god by his solar rays, attacks the bent
tree under which Allat sits on her throne while on the other
;
we have two scenes, one the attack with the axe against
the tree, and the other her forced acceptance of him as her
spouse. It would seem that there must have been some
connection between the two stories and a common origin,
yet I do not believe that this Greek mythologic element
came directlv from Babvlonia. It is much more likelv that
it came in a modified form through the Hittite civilization
of Asia Minor.
I have spoken of the three assessor judges, Minos, Aiakos,
and Rhadamanthys. In the Egyptian religion there were
forty-two such judges, who sat while Thoth weighed the heart
WILLIAM HAYES WARD 245
of the dead. might seem that the Greek court of three

It
judges was derived directly from the Egyptian, but I think

not. There were no scales held by Pluto, and the three
judges had an authority superior to that of the forty- two
Egyptian assessors before whom the dead passed, declaring
in the presence of each that he had not been guilty of some
specific sin. Once more, I think, we have evidence that the

three were derived from an early Asianic source. If we
except the two designs already mentioned representing the
seizure of Allat by Nergal, I do not remember any clear
Babylonian representation of the lower world for the ex-
;
traordinary funerary tablet described by Clermont-Gan-

neau, and several others of the same sort, seem to be very
late. But we do have on the seal cylinders several repre-
sentations of the underworld from the iVsianic region and
period. In one of these (Seal Cylinders, p. 283, fig. 857),
we see the deceased lying on a bier with flames rising from his
burning body. Below is the food for his use in the lower
world, both meat and drink. The god of the lower world
sits on his throne, and a bifrons herald presents three figures,
indicated by their peculiar reversed crook, or lituus, as kings.
Were this the only case in which we find them, we might not
understand what is their relation to the scene ; but we again
find {ibidem, fig. 855) these same three same position
in the
before the god. In yet another case (fig. 854) the lower
register shows the attendant spirits of the lower world bring-
ing food to the ghost of the dead. It is more than probable, I
think, that the three royal figures that stand before the seated
god correspond to Minos, Aiakos, and Rhadamanthys of the
Greek judgment scene.
A word as to Artemis. The many-breasted Diana of the
Ephesians is from the con-

as different as can be conceived
ventional Greek Artemis, the modest maiden goddess who
changed Aktaion to a stag hunted by his own hounds for
the crime of having seen her at her bath. That there is an
Artemis native to Asia Minor is abundantly recognized, apart
from any Greek Artemis but the two were confused, and
;
the most composite of all Greek deities is Artemis. She is

the moon, sister of Apollo, the sun she is also the daughter
;
of Demeter and identified with Persephone and Hekate, the

246 ASIANIC INFLUENCE IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY
goddess of the underworld. She is the modest huntress

maiden, and yet is, with Dionysos, honored with obscene
dances and orgies. She is the fighting goddess who, as an
infant, slew the daughters of Niobe, and who killed giants,
and yet, as Eileithyia, she is the goddess of childbirth. She
is a complex, arising from the worship of a Greek and autoch-
thonous population of Greece and the Greek islands and

that of Asianic peoples. We know of no Asianic goddess
of the moon,?although we have the Phoenician Astarte.
The familiar Greek Artemis appears to have very little
relation to the Diana of the Ephesians whose image fell
down from Jupiter. Nor is there any Hittite goddess to
whom she seems allied. A winged goddess on a bronze plate

from Olympia (Roscher, sub voce, 'Artemis,' vol, 1, part 1,
col. 564), lifting two lions by the hind foot like Gilgamesh,
is called the Asiatic Artemis, because Artemis was the hunter
and the protector of wild beasts. The Assyrian Ishtar, who

differs from the Babylonian Ishtar, might seem to be re-
lated to the Greek Artemis. She is decked with bows and
stars, and stands on a lion. To be sure the Ephesian Diana
also stands on a lion, but there is no other relation between
the two, and there is no clear evidence that Artemis was
related to the Assyrian Ishtar, although not improbably
the Assyrian Ishtar, standing on a lion, and figured in the
same position in Egyptian art as an Asiatic goddess, was re-
lated to the Greek goddess of the chase as truly as to the
Babylonian Ishtar.
There is a considerable number of cases in which the
parallel is so close between the Greek myth and the Oriental
myth or art that it seems in every way likely that the later
Western was derived from the older Eastern. We who
live in a scientific age cannot appreciate the easy credulity
with which pictures or sculptures of strange composite
beings would lead to the belief that such creatures had actual
existence in some distant land. The unicorn was supposed
to be a veritable animal simply because the bull was figured
in profile with but one horn showing. Unicorns had been
carved as stone pictures on temple walls gods and monsters
;
of all sorts figured on seals and silver bowls carried in trade

everywhere; and it was natural to believe that
a gryphon through the wilderness.
Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth

Had from his wakeful custody purloined
The guarded gold."
— Milton's Paradise Lost, ii. 943.
It did not seem incredible to our ancestors a few generations

ago that St. George killed a dragon, yet all the evidence that
there were dragons was based on the familiar art that had
come down from a hoary antiquity. Art made such "gor-
gons and hydras and chimeras dire," seem as veritable to
them as trolls and giants "and yellow-skirted fays" to our
childhood. Why then should not the Ionian Greeks have
believed in the actual existence, farther to the East, of the
monsters which they saw figured on amulets and seals and in
larger form on the friezes of the palaces and temples of the
peoples with whom they traded and lived ? and why should
they not have adopted them into their own mythology and
art ? Such a composite monster as that from a Syro-
Hittite palace at Sen jirli, a sphinx springing from the shoulder
of a lion, might well have given origin to the Greek chimera
slain by Bellerophon, with its second head growing out of the
back of a lion.
Whence did the Greeks get their griffins, centaurs, and
sphinxes ? The griffins were ornaments on vessels in Egypt
from the eighteenth to the twêntieth dynasties, but they did
not originate in Egypt they originated in Asia, and it was
;
from Asia that they entered into Mycenaean art we find ;
them familiar in the Hittite period. Neither did they come

directly from Babylonia, for the early composite of Baby-
lonia was a monster with the head of a lion and the body of
an eagle, while the true griffin has the head of an eagle and
the body of a lion. Egypt and Greece both took the griffin
from the Hittite culture of Asia Minor.
The centaurs were the youngest of these composite figures.
The Greeks had the feeling that they were foreign, and rep-
resented them as beaten back by the young Greek Lapithse,
the old order yielding to the new. It was the manful story
which Phidias told on the Parthenon. We have the centaur
in the art of the Hittite period on two seals (Seal Cylinders,
figs. 631-633), which are not Assyrian. The centaur does

not belong to Babylonian or Assyrian art. To be sure, he
finally becomes Sagittarius and was placed in the heavens,
but that is, I think, comparatively late.
It must not be thought that any sort of composite monster
may be devised independently in different regions. Each

country has its own. The griffin of the Hittites is a complex
of the lion and the eagle different from that of Babylonia.
The monsters of Egypt are not those of Babylonia. A sphinx
does not originate twice. It is transferred, imported. So
a centaur is the product of one national source, and if we
find it elsewhere it is adventive. Originating with one of the
Asianic peoples, possibly with the Kassites (Seal Cylinders,
fig. 21), it spread over Asia Minor to the coasts and was
adopted into Greek mythology as truly as the sphinx whose

riddle was guessed by (Edipus.
The sphinx is the only one of these composite monsters
adopted into Greek mythology which originated in Egypt,

where it goes back into the earlier dynasties, and from which
country it passed over into the coasts of Asia and thence
eastward into Assyria and westward into Greece. In the
case of the sphinx, Phoenicia and Syria may well have been
the region from which the Greeks, and before them the
earlier inhabitants, received the foreign mythological
figure ; forit was familiar first to the Egyptianized Hauran
region (Seal Cylinders, fig. 811), being found on seals that

seem to go back of the eighteenth dynasty, and it was com-
mon in the later Hittite period. It did not reach Assyria
till later, not being familiar there much before the reign of
Assurbanipal. It is not characteristic of Mycensean art,

although found on gold ornaments that were probably im-
ported. The Greeks learned of the sphinx later.
In Greek story Atlas supported the heavens on his shoul-
ders, a very curious conceit. But the Hittites had a similar
conceit which became familiar also to the Assyrians. It
represents the winged disk, Ashur, or Anu, god of heaven,
supported by two stalwart human-headed bulls, doubled for
symmetry. We have it on the famous procession of Boghaz-
keui, and it is often repeated. The figure of the bull is that
of Eabani, friend of Gilgamesh, and we remember that
Herakles, the Greek Gilgamesh, was the friend of Atlas, and

on one occasion took for a while Atlas's load. For the Greek
myth of Atlas it is likely that we can find the source in the
Hittite supporters of the winged disk which represents the
god of Heaven, the Arjân Varuna.
The phoenix is by its very name Asianic, although classi-
cal writers also assigned its origin to Egypt. Herodotos
relates it to Arabia, and adds that the Assyrians call it
phcenix. It was often referred to Ethiopia but by ;
Ethiopia was meant the Cush, or Kash, of Elam. One

would like to find the phoenix in Oriental as well as in classical
art. Very likely we have it, but while in the vast multitude
of classical objects of art we find the phoenix distinctly rep-
resented building his nest for his incineration and resur-
rection, or already in the flames, we have only one cylinder
(Seal Cylinders, p. 352) with a Sabsean inscription, from
Arabia or from Arabian influence, which appears to repre-
sent the phoenix. It is evidently a mythical bird, of com-
posite form. I do not know that the phoenix appears in either
the old Babylonian or in the later Assyrian art. To be sure,
we have the composite bird v/ith the lion's head which is
known and in the Assyrian art the
as the eagle of Lagash,
ostrich and various composite birds take the place of the
dragon with which Bel Marduk fights or which guards the
tree of life but none of these seem to suggest the phoenix.
;
Equally we miss it in the literature of Assyria so far as that

is recovered but I am inclined to find it on the broken
;
Sabsean seal referred to. It is an importation into Greece

from the East, but not through the usual Ionian channel.
Dionysos, or Bakchos, was held to be a Thracian god, and
was also worshipped in Phrygia, for the Phrygians and
Thracians were near neighbors. In the earlier worship of
Dionysos he was not distinctively the god of the vine;
Homer does not know him as such. Although we have no
definite knowledge how he happened to assume that role,
we may conjecture that it was through a Hittite in-
fluence for we have one figure of a locally worshipped
;
Hittite god, not one of the principal gods, carved on a rock

at Ibriz and nowhere else found, who corresponds exactly to
the more familiar character of Dionysos. He appears all
girdled with grapes and holding as a staff tall stalks of grain.

He would be instantly recognized as Dionysos but for the
accompanying old Hittite inscription. We may think of him
as the original of the Greek deity of the vine, who as such was
a comparatively late god.
The old Roman Janus is a bifrons. The earliest knowledge
we have of a bifrons is from archaic Babylonian art, where,
by a naive convention, the divine attendant of a superior
god leads in a
worshipper or a criminal for judgment before
Shamash ; and one face turns w ith respect to the seated god,
while the other watches the personage behind him. I would
not believe that any Latin people had any knowledge of the
art of that early period, but the convention was continued
in the northern regions (Seal Cylinders, figs. 854-857), and
Hittite art shows the same convention in a region from which
it might well have been transferred to the settlers of the
Ionian coasts and thence to Magna Graecia and the Etrus-
cans,
— for Janus was the oldest of all the Latin gods.
We have the Greek story of Ganymedes taken up to
heaven by an eagle to be the companion of the gods. Gany-
medes was the son of Tros, and brother of Ilos and Assarakos.
Now those names, Tros, Ilos, and Assarakos, are suspiciously
Asiatic, or even Semitic, and the story of his being carried
to heaven by an eagle is surprisingly like the story of Etana
lifted to heaven by an eagle. This story of Etana is several
times represented in Babylonian art (Seal Cylinders, p. 144).
We see him astride the eagle mounting to heaven, while the
two dogs which helped him in herding his sheep gaze up-
ward to watch his flight, just as on a Greek design Gany-
medes' hunting dog looks up in wonder to see him taken by
the eagle. I do not put any weight on the presence of the
dogs in both, and in the same attitude, for the dog was
equally the companion of the shepherd and the hunter yet ;
the Greek myth might seem to have its origin in that of

Babylonia. The known representations of the ascent of
Etana belong to an early period of Babylonian art, probably
from 2500 to 3000 B.C. but that the Ionian Greek may
;
have borrowed the kernel of the Babylonian story is made

plausible by the fact that it is told on tablets from the
library of Assurbanipal nearly 2000 years later. The related
story of Adapa and the eagle was a schoolboy's tale found

with the Tel-el-Amarna tablets.
The very curious design shown in the work cited, fig.
643, of a god or hero slaying a female monster, instantly
suggests the exploit of Perseus in beheading the Gorgon
Medusa. There would be no question of this if it were
found on a Greek vase instead of on a seal cylinder. I do
not assume to judge with any certainty of its age, for the
type is too unusual to be compared with objects of known
age; but probably it is of a period as early as 600 to 800
B.C. Even so, it is early to be borrowed from Greece, and it
is not likely that it was engraved under Greek influence.

We see the Gorgon, if it be she, with strangely divided feet,
and we remember that in Greek art her limbs may end in
serpents, or she may even be a centaur. The attacking
figure, like Perseus, has his head turned back, as if to escape
her stony gaze ; and he carries a sickle-like weapon. It is
a question whether we have here the original of the Greek
myth of Perseus, or one of the representations in Asianic
art of the Gigantomachia.
The myth of the war against the Giants seems to be
Asianic rather than Greek. It is the Oriental Herakles who
overthrows them. The very fact of a war of the gods implies
that an old order and religion were being overturned by a
new, just as the Greek god Zeus overthrew Kronos, who was
very likely Pelasgian, and who bore the apirr], the sickle-
shaped sword, which came from the East. We seem to have
the Giants in old Asianic art, and we are told of one of the
most ancient of them that he came from Cilicia. I have said
that the scene previously mentioned may be meant to give
us an Asianic myth like that of Perseus killing the Gorgon,
rather than a war with the Giants but there are others
;
that cannot represent the Gorgon. Such is fig, 642 of the

same work, where two gods attack a giant-like figure which
is possibly, but not probably, feminine. The attacking
figures are seen to be gods by the bows tipped with circles on
their shoulders, like those of Adad, and they bear the axe
of Adad. In another case, fig. 644, the kneeling giant figure
is distinctly bearded. The attitude on the knee is pre-
cisely the same as that of the supposed Gorgon ; but that
may have been required by the necessity of representing

the attacked figure as superior in size to his conqueror ;
there was not room for him to stand upright. These seals
do not seem to be Assyrian, but belong to some one of the
outlying provinces. We may well have here an early
Asianic representation of the Gigantomachia.
The discovery that the Hittites spoke an Aryan language
and that they ruled Asia Minor and Syria and Phoenicia from
a period long before the Greek theogony was developed, re-
quires us to reconsider all our old notions that the Oriental in-
fluence which entered into the Greek religion was Phoenician.]
It may have been Aryan. The influence of Phoenicia has
been vastly exaggerated. Its colonies were much later than
has been supposed, for the great freebooter sailors up to
1200 or 1400 B.C. were from the southern coasts of Asia
Minor. It is the influence of Asia Minor on Greek religion
and mythology as against Phoenicia, and hence of an Aryan
rather than a Semitic influence, which it has been the pur-
pose of this paper to illustrate, while showing that the East
has a considerably larger influence on Greek religion and
art than has usually been recognized. Such deities as
Kronos, Poseidon, Ares, Dionysos, and Aphrodite, and many
other personages in Hellenic mythology, are doubtless wholly
or partly Oriental, while others, like Zeus, Apollo, Athena,
and Pan, are Hellenic.
In this discussion I have recognized very little Egyptian
influence. In early times the Egyptian influence must have
been very slight in Greece or in the neighboring islands.
The seafaring traders were not Egyptians the Egyptians
;
established no colonies nearer than the Hauran and the

Canaanite coast. What Egyptian influence entered in was
earlier through the Hauran, and later through Phoenicia;
and I suspect that the story of Medea offering to bring to
lifethe old king Pelias after he had been cut to pieces by
his daughters was related to the primitive Egyptian method
of cutting up the bodies of the dead. We find it in the story
which tells how Osiris was cut in pieces by the wicked Set,
and the pieces brought together by Isis and Horus, and Osiris
thus reconstituted and brought to his throne.
To the Egyptians of old the Greeks were mere children.
late comers on the stage of history. To our modern vision

they are the upper and nearest stratum of the pre-Christian
civiKzation, one that, as in geologic evolution, has developed
and improved the forms of life that had appeared in the strata
below it. The excavating spade has brought to light these
unknown lower stages of racial culture. As the present
horse evolved out of the older hipparion, and that out of
is
an earlier eohippus, so the Greek gods and the Greek myths,

with all their fascinations, have risen out of lower and coarser
myths and gods of older races and times. All the culture
of the various East was gathered into the Greek soul and
there clarified and illuminated by the new element of beauty ;
so that the new supreme civilization, having reached its

highest intellectual perfection, and needing nothing more
except the spiritual impulse to be caught from David and
Jesus, should mightily spread and diffuse itself over the con-
tinents and flow down all the succeeding ages. Greece was
the child of all the cultures that had gone before. From her
we inherit them all, and it is for us to search the garrets
and cellars for our heirlooms. As was said of the celestial
Jerusalem, Athens is free and is the mother of us all. We all
trace our descent from that little peninsula, scarce noted on
the world's map, but the omphalos of the oUovfievr], the
sacred, central, perennial spring of all succeeding civiliza-
tions.
THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS^
George Foot Moore

Harvard University
The Arian controversy had led the church to aflSrm the

union of God and man in Christ, but the relation of the divine
and human natures to each other and to the personality of
Christ was left unsettled. Arius, like Lucian of Antioch
before him, had denied that Christ had a human soul the ;
(created) Logos assumed a body without a soul (croyfia as^vôv).

His opponent, Athanasius, in the zeal of his contention for
the divine, uncreated Logos, identical in essence with the
Father, expressed himself similarly: "As the Logos is from
eternity God and Son, so by the assumption of flesh from
the Virgin (the Mother of God, @eoT6Ko<i), he became also
man." Marcellus is more explicit the Logos is the Ego
:
in the personality of Christ the human nature which is the

;
organ and substratum of the Logos is impersonal.

Apollinaris, on the basis of the Platonic trichotomy,
taught that man consists of a material body, an animal soul,
the principle of life, and a mind or spirit (t'oO?), the principle
of wisdom and self-determination. If then the Logos be
supposed to unite with a complete man, there would be in

Christ two principles of self-determination, two free wills,
and consequently two persons between which no true union
exists. Accordingly he held that in Christ the Logos fills
the place of the rational soul.
Against these theories of a mutilated human nature in
1
The statutes of the School at Nisibis were published by I. Guidi, Giornale della
Societa Asiatica Italiana, 4 (1890), 165-195. German translation by E. Nestle,
Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 18 (1897-1898), 211-229.
Chabot, J.-B., L'Ecole de Nisibe, son histoire, ses statuts. Journal Asiatique,
Neu\-ieme Serie, 8 (1896), 43-93.
Kihn, H., Theodor von Mopsuestia und Junilius Africanus als Exegeten. 1880.
255
256 THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL AT NISIBIS
Christ — Arian or Apollinarian

— the
Antiochian School
contended for a complete humanity,^ including free will, and
gave to the historical Christ a place in theology from which
the development of Christological dogma was step by step
excluding him. Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mop-
suestia laid stress upon the development of Jesus, not only
in body but in mind and character (Luke ii. 52) on the ;
reality of his temptations the evidence of human weakness,

;
fear, and suffering of mind and body the limitations of his

;
knowledge. They held that he was in fact sinless, but would

not admit that it was by the constitution of his nature im-
possible for him to sin. A human nature without a rational
soul and all that that implies is not really human nature.
The mode of union, for which the word avvd(f)eia is employed,
they admit to be undefinable but they could only conceive
;
the indwelling of God in Christ as analogous to his indwelling

in prophets and apostles and godly men, although in Christ
this indwelling was so complete as to constitute a unique be-
ing. The divine and the human in him preserved each its full
integrity and distinctive characteristics, so that the union was

rather moral than physical or substantial, and was thus
progressively realized, becoming more intimate with time,
and in the end inseparable. The dwelling of God in the man
Jesus was neither Kar ovaiav nor /car' ivepyetav but KarevSoKiav.
A real transfer or interchange of the predicates of the two
natures they would not acknowledge. It would be per-
fectly correct, Theodore says, to speak, not merely of two
natures, but of two persons, in Christ, for a being (uTroo-racrt?)
isnot perfect except as a person. Their position here may
be better appreciated by contrasting it with a writing at-
tributed to Athanasius which speaks of "the one enfleshed
nature of the God-Logos." Their emphasis on self-deter-
mination as the essence of personality logically led the
Other opponents of Apollinaris, such as the Gregories, and Athanasius himself

2
—
362 A.D.), also give Christ a rational soul, but with a manifest trend toward
(in
monophysite theories (and in Hilary with a docetic tendency)
— taught that the
humanity is penetrated by divinity or assumed into it in such a way as to become
one with it by a ^vuffis <j>vffiKT] (Athanasius). So Cyril, in the Nestorian con-
troversy, maintained that the Logos assumed the human nature into the unity of
his being without undergoing change, so that there was one indivisible subject;
the union was with the human nature, not with a human individuality.
GEORGE FOOT MOORE 257
Antiochians to take the Pelagian side in the Western con-

troversy.
The doctrine of Nestorius is essentially the same as that
of Theodore. When he went to Constantinople as Patriarch,
in 428, he found notions of the person of Christ current which
logically implied Apollinarian premises and were irreconcil-
able with his true and full humanity. The conflict was pre-
cipitated by a sermon of Anastasius, the private secretary of
Nestorius, who had accompanied him from Antioch, in which
the preacher objected to the application of the epithet êoro-
/C09, Mother of God, to the Virgin "She was but a woman.
:
It is impossible for God to be born of a human being,"

In the commotion which followed, Nestorius warmly sup-
ported Anastasius. "How," he wrote, "can Mary be @eo-
To'/co9 ? Has God a mother ? Then the heathen must be
right who give their gods mothers, and Paul a liar who says
of the divinity of Christ that he was airdrcop koI a/xjjTcop.
Mary did not bear God, a creature bear the uncreated, but
she bore a human being who is the organ of divinity." The
union of the divine nature and the human implied no deifi-
cation of the human nature.
Cyril of Alexandria became the leader of the attack upon
Nestorius. As a result of his unscrupulous tactics, with the
support of the Bishop of Rome, Coelestine, the Council of
Ephesus (431 a.d.) proceeded not only to condemn the teach-
ing of Nestorius, but to depose him. But inasmuch as the
teaching of Nestorius was not essentially different from that
of Diodorus and Theodore, the condemnation tacitly in-
volved these venerated teachers, and did not readily find
acceptance in the Syrian schools, where their influence was
greatest. Bishop Rabulas, a vehement champion of the
decrees of Ephesus, found himself constrained in 431 or
432 to remove the teachers of the great theological school at
Edessa for maintaining, in accordance with the tradition of
the school, the views of Theodore but under his successor,
;
Ibas (Bishop in 435), the school was reopened, and the same
doctrines were again heard in its lecture-rooms, until finally'',
in 489, at the instance of Bishop Cyrus, the Emperor Zeno
closed it altogether as a well-spring of heresy. The ex-
pulsion of the Nestorian ecclesiastics by Rabulas (431) drove
some of them across the border into Persian territory,

among them Barsumas, who shortly after became Bishop
of Nisibis (435-489). The fact that the Nestorians were
persecuted in the Roman Empire was sufficient reason why
they should be favored by the Persians and in the first period
;
of this favor Nestorian Christianity gained ground rapidly

in Persia, partly at the expense of the orthodox, partly by
conversions from Mazdaism.
The closing of the school of Edessa in 489 drove the pro-
fessors and students to Nisibis, where they were cordially re-
ceived by Barsumas, and the fame and influence of the school
there dates from this time. Its first head was Narses, who
had a great reputation as scholar and saint; his successors
worthily followed in his footsteps, and at the end of the sixth
century, when the school had reached its highest point, it
numbered about eight hundred students. Other schools
were established, at Seleucia for example, but none of them
rivalled Nisibis, which was for two centuries or more the
principal institution for the training of the clergy of Persia
and of the Nestorian missionaries who carried Christianity
to the remotest quarters of Asia. Its decline is coincident
with the general decay of Christianity in the East, but only
in the ninth century did it yield the preeminence to the
school at Bagdad, the capital of the Califate.
The statutes of the school at Nisibis at two periods in its
history have been preserved ; those adopted in 496, shortly
after its foundation, and reaffirmed in 530, and new regula-
tions from the year 590. Inasmuch as it is the only insti-
tution of the kind with whose organization we are acquainted,
these statutes are of considerable interest.
The school was a corporation, with various privileges and
a considerable degree of self-government, though subject
ultimately to the authority of the Bishop. The Superior
was chosen from the professors, among whom the Professor
of Biblical Exegesis was the first in rank. The administra-
tion was committed to a Superintendent elected annually
by the convocation of the members of the college, who ful-
filled the duties of a steward, dean, and librarian
;
but in im-
portant matters he was required to obtain the approval of a
Council consisting of the Superior and the leading brethren.
Like institutions for the training of the clergy in the West

until a comparatively recent time, the school at Nisibis re-
sembled a monastic foundation. The students, and doubt-
less the teachers, lived in the college, and many of the rules
in the statutes regulate this common life. By the supple-
mentary statutes, non-collegiate students are allowed to live
in private quarters in the city when there is not room enough
for them in the college. Students were admitted after
satisfying the Superintendent and the Council of their fitness
and being made acquainted with the statutes —a kind of
matriculation ; the statutes were also publicly read once a
year. The entrants promised to remain unmarried students
;
who married during their course of study were expelled.

The course of theological study lasted three years, with
a vacation of three months, from August to October. The
instruction was free, but the students had to provide for their
living out of their private means or to earn it by working in
vacation. Those unable to work might receive aid from the
Superintendent so far as he had means at his disposal beg- ;
ging from house to house was, however, strictly prohibited.

In term time students were not allowed to undertake any
occupation, lest it should withdraw them from their studies ;
even tutoring boys in the city was forbidden. During the

vacation they might work at an honest handicraft in the city
of Nisibis itself but if thej^ engaged in merchandising of any
;
kind, it must be outside the city, in order, probably, not to

infringe upon the privileges of the tradesmen's guilds.
Study hours were long. At cockcrow the students took
their places in the study hall, and spent the entire day copy-
ing books, hearing lectures, and learning to intone the services.
After chapel in the evening they were obliged to retire to
their rooms. Talking about ordinary affairs or making a
disturbance in the schoolroom was punished by removal.
Idling was visited with reproof; and if that did not work
an amendment, relegation followed. Professors who, with-
out permission of the President or without urgent cause such
as illness, omitted their lectures, had their salary reduced
and were excluded from the Council. Students had to take
their meals in common in their quarters they were forbid-
;
den to eat in bakeshops or inns, to spend the night in the

city,and to take part in picnics or garden parties. The

sick were cared for by their companions in their rooms or in
an infirmary which was later estabHshed. Students were
enjoined to pay attention to their personal appearance ;
when they went into the city they must be decently and
modestly clothed they must neither shave off all their hair,
;
nor wear it in the long frizzed locks which were affected by

the young dandies of the time.
The order of studies is not defined in the statutes. A
regulation which has often been quoted in this connection
really refers only to the copying of the Scriptures and
practice in reciting the liturgy. In the first year students
copied the Book of Paul (that is, as Kihn plausibly surmises,
the lectures on Biblical Introduction of which we shall have
to speak later) and the Pentateuch in the second year, the
;
Psalms and the Prophets in the third, the New Testament ;

;
and in each year, also, one-third of the second division of the

Nestorian Old Testament, the so-called mauihdbe. If every
student was required to copy the entire Bible during his
course for his own use — church copies would of course be
made by professional scribes — the ministry of the Nestorian
church must have been better provided than any other at
that time.
About the character of the instruction we know a good
deal from other sources. The Nestorians made themselves
the heirs of Antiochian Biblical scholarship. Theodore of
Mopsuestia was for them "the exegete"; at Nisibis his
authority was indeed in later time so great that for a pro-
fessor to contradict his interpretation was sufficient ground
for removal.
The first distinguished name in the school of Antioch is
that of the bishop and martyr Lucian (died in 311 or 312),
whose fame rests upon his work as critic and editor of the
text of both Old and New Testaments. The great period
in its history opens with Diodorus (died 394), who long
taught at Antioch before he became Bishop of Tarsus (378).
Among his hearers were Chrysostom (died 407) Theodore ;
(died 428) and his brother Polychronius Isidore of Pelusium

;
(died 434), from whom we have the best exposition of the

hermeneutics of the school. Nestorius (died 440) was a pupil
of Theodore; and Tlieodoret (died 457), a pupil Chrysos- of

tom and Theodore — the catalogue includes the greatest ex-
egetes of the Greek church.
In opposition to the Alexandrians, who followed Clement
and Origen and cultivated the allegorical-mystical method
of interpretation of which the Jewish theologian Philo was the
great exemplar, depreciating the literal and historical sense,
the Antiochians developed the principles of a rational exe-
gesis. It is the business of the interpreter, in the use of all
the means which philology and history put in his hands, to
find out the literal sense which is everywhere present in
Scripture, the meaning of the author. They recognize that
the language of Scripture is often figurative, but to explain
the meaning of figures of speech is part of the literal inter-
pretation. In many persons and events in the Old Testa-
ment they saw types of the New Testament dispensation
which may be regarded as prophecies in fact;^ but the
historical reality and significance of the events is not evap-
orated, as it is by allegorists. The predilection of these
scholars for Aristotle, especially for his logical and methodo-
logical writings, appears in their hermeneutics, as the influ-
ence of his rational philosophy is dominant in their theology,
while the Alexandrians Platonize and Philonize.
Theodore of Mopsuestia represents the tendencies of the
Antiochian school in their freest development. In his exe-
gesis the historico-critical side is especially developed, and
in the field of what is called the higher criticism he displays
both acumen and boldness. He rejected, for example, the
titles of the Psalms as no part of the inspired text and as
historically worthless, and attempted, in the same way as

modern critics and to some extent with the same results,
to refer the individual Psalms on internal evidence to par-
ticular periods or circumstances. Seventeen Psalms are thus
referred to the Maccabaean times onlv nineteen to David
;
and his age. Direct predictions of Christ he admits in but

four Psalms, though many others contain typical prophecies
of the Messianic age or the future consummation. It would
be interesting to compare Theodore on these points with
'
It has been remarked that their attitude resembles in many ways that of the
"Federal" school of theologians.
Calvin, "the exegete" of the Reformation, who had in other

ways no sHght affinity with Theodore.
Theodore's views on the canon are radical. He not only
excludes the books of the Old Testament which Protestants
call the Apocrypha, along with Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe-
miah, and Esther, which the Syrian churches never received,
but he did not acknowledge the inspiration of Job, in which
he saw a drama patterned after Greek models. The Song
of Solomon, which he also rejected, was an altogether secular
poem, composed for Solomon's wedding with the Egyptian
prince'ss, and as a defence or excuse for his conduct in that
matter.
Theodore recognized different kinds and degrees of in-
spiration. The inspiration of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus,
for example, was very different from that of the prophets :
"
Proverbia et Ecclesiastica, quae ipse {sc. Salomo) ex sua
persona ad aliorum utilitatem composuit, cum prophetiae
quidem gratiam non accepisset, prudentiae vero gratiam,
quae evidenter altera est praeter illam secundum beati
Pauli vocem (1 Cor. xii. 8)." Sound advice for getting on
in the world is a very different thing from the revelation
of the Kingdom of God. These propositions were con-
demned by the Second Council of Constantinople.
The Antiochian theory of prophecy was not only more
rational than the Platonic-mantic doctrine of inspiration in
the Alexandrian Fathers, but was a sounder interpretation of
the phenomena, and more just to the historical significance
of prophecy and its end in the economy of revelation and;
among the Antiochians Theodore gives the clearest and

sanest exposition and application of the principles. Every
prophecy was given in a particular historical situation, and
in its primary significance and application has to do with
the prophet's present and the immediate future. But proph-
ecy has also a remoter motive and end, to prepare the way
for the Kingdom of God, for the coming of Christ and the
redemption of mankind, and beyond that for the glorious
fulfilment in the world to come. The twofold meaning of
prophecy is not properly a double sense the Messianic fulfil-
;
ment is pragmatically connected in the divine plan with the

events of the prophet's time. *'Thus the prophecies set
forth conditions and events which are organically related to

one another, for the purpose of furthering the development
of the Kingdom of God on earth and bringing to realization
the divine plan for the redemption of all mankind."^
The historical interpretation of prophecy is therefore the
first task of the interpreter the historical understanding is
;
the premise of the Messianic interpretation. In his com-

mentary on the Minor Prophets Theodore applies these
principles with intelligence and sobriety. In many prophe-
cies which the Fathers in general took as plain predictions
of Christ, he finds neither a direct nor a typical Messianic
sense, but refers them exclusively to events in the history of
Israel.
In his views on the mode of prophetic inspiration, Theo-
dore is equally sane. There are in both the Old Testament
and the New instances of ecstasy with complete suppression
of the prophet's consciousness, the impressions of sense and
the activities of his intelligence being alike inhibited; but
the ordinary mode of revelation is an inner illumination,
the Holy Spirit awaking in the inmost soul of the prophet
thoughts and images by a spiritual perception, without
sensible forms, so that the (inner) "vision" is equivalent to
the "word of the Lord," which itself is no audible commu-
nication, but an inner experience.
By singular good fortune, a course of lectures on Biblical
Introduction by a professor in the school at Nisibis has been
preserved under the name of Junilius Africanus. The man-
ner of its transmission is interesting. The dedicatory pref-
ace is addressed to Primasius, w^ho was Bishop of Adrume-
tum in North Africa in the middle of the sixth century. The
writer, Junilius, was not, as was formerly supposed, a bishop,
but a jurist, and an official at the court of the Emperor
Justinian, where he filled the high oflSce of Quaestor Sacri
Palatii. On a visit to Constantinople, Primasius had asked
Junilius whether there was any one among the Greeks who
was conspicuous in Biblical science. Junilius replied that
he had met a certain Paul, a Persian (i.e. a subject of the
Persian empire), who had been educated in the school of the
4
Kihn, p. 97 f.
Syrians at Nisibis, "where instruction in the divine law is

systematically and regularly given by public professors, as
among us grammar and rhetoric are taught as branches of
secular learning." Junilius had obtained from him a text-
book on hermeneutics which he was accustomed to give in
the form of lectures to his students at the beginning of their
course as an introduction to the study of Scripture, Of this
book Junilius sent Primasius a Latin translation in catechetic
form, under the title Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis.
Biblical science, so the treatise begins, has two branches,
one of which deals with the form, the other with the content,
of Scripture
— we should say. Biblical Criticism and
Biblical Theology. The problems of Biblical Criticism may
be grouped under five heads 1, the class of literature to
—
:
which a book belongs historical, prophetic, gnomic, di-

dactic the authority of the book
2, 3, its authorship ;
;
form
4, its literary poetry or prose
— 5, its place in the
;
economy of revelation
—
Old Testament, New Testament.
;
These topics are taken in order. After concisely defining

history as the narration of past or contemporary events,
the author enumerates the historical books of both Testa-
ments. Besides the seventeen historical books which he
acknowledges, "many include Chronicles (two books). Job,
Tobit, Ezra (with Nehemiah), Judith, Esther, two Books of
Maccabees," which the author denies a place in the canon
because they are not acknowledged by Jews.^ Prophecy is
defined as the disclosure by divine inspiration of things
otherwise unknown, whether past, present, or future.
Among the prophetic Scriptures the Psalms are reckoned.
The prophets are arranged, not in the order of the Greek
Bible, but chronologically, Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, and
so on, ending with Malachi. The Orientals have grave
doubts about the canonicity of the Revelation of John.^
To the gnomic literature belong the Proverbs of Solomon
and the Song of Songs. In the last category, didactic,
'^
^
There is some inaccuracy about this statement. Jerome, who is quoted, refers
only to the Apocrypha. Perhaps Jimilius is at fault.
•
Tliis is cautiously worded, perhaps, by Junilius. A Syrian would have ex-
pressed himself more positively about a book which his church had never accepted.
' Ecclesiastes is not mentioned in either class.
the Epistles of James, Second Peter, Jude, Second and Third

John, are inckided "by very many"; the author himself
does not rank them as canonical.
The author's teaching on the authority of Scripture is
a corollary of his views on the canon of perfect authority are
:
the unquestioned canonical books of qualified authority the

;
books which the author, with the Nestorians generally, did

not accept, but which some branches of the church included
in the canon other books reputed inspired were of no au-
;
thority whatever. The distinction between the authority

of books universally accepted and those whose canonicity
was disputed made also by Augustine, De Doctrina
is
Christiana, ii. and anticipates the classification of Scripture

8,
as canonic and deuterocanonic by Sixtus Senensis and later
Catholic scholars.
Passing to the second branch of Biblical science. Biblical
Theology, the relation of the Old Testament to the New in
the economy of revelation is thus defined the purpose of :
the Old Testament is to point to the New by figures and

foretellings, of the New to kindle men's souls to the glory
of eternal blessedness.
The law of God is either the law of conscience within man,
or is disclosed in nature, providence, and history, or finally,
is given by God in the form of statute. The last is either
immutable, e.g. the love of God and our neighbor, or tran-
sient, such as circumcision or the rules about the gathering
of manna. Some laws are profitable in themselves, some
necessary on account of others some are carnal, like the
;
Jewish distinctions of clean and unclean, others spiritual :.
some are peculiar to the Old Testament, some to the New,.

others again, such as Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, are;
common to both.
The
subject of prediction and prophetic types is treated!
at some length. A type may be defined as a real prophecy^
a prophecy in things or facts, in distinction from a prophecy
in words for example, the resurrection of our Lord and his
;
abiding in heaven is a type of our resurrection, and points

to the future habitation of the righteous in heaven the ark ;
of Noah is a figure of the church, and the like. Predictions

are classified somewhat minutely, especially the Messianic.
prophecies and those referring to the calHng of the Gen-

tiles.
In the last chapters the author sets forth the familiar proofs
of the inspiration of Scripture —
among which, however, the
testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti is not included and —
the norm for the understanding of Scripture. The latter
may be quoted as an example of the author's sound her-
meneutic principles What is said must be suitable to the
:
speaker, and must accord with the reasons for which it is

said it must be congruous with the time, the place, the stage
;
of revelation, and the purpose. The purpose of the divine

teaching in Scripture is defined by our Lord, viz. that we
should love God with all our heart and soul, and our neighbors
as ourselves. Not God or our ncighlôr is therefore
to love
a repudiation of Christian doctrine (doctrinae cor- . . .
ruptio est e contrario deum non amare vcl proximum) The .
root of evil is the abuse of freedom: "Quia dum libero ar-

bitrio a deo bene concesso inordinate utuntur, rationales
creaturae et malitiae et poenae causa sibimet exist erunt,"
With Theodore of Mopsuestia, the notion of original sin is
here rejected.
The Nestorian church in the sixth century seems to have
been in advance of any other branch of the church in the
systematic education of its ministry by a three years' course
in an institution exclusively devoted to theological study.
In its instruction the Bible had the central place in its ;
faculty the Professor of Biblical Exegesis held the first rank.

Sound principles of interpretation prevailed, and critical
opinions were freely uttered which would not have been
tolerated in our own
seminaries a generation ago and in —
many of them are not tolerated now.
In the Catholic church,
after the condemnation of the Nestorians, the Biblical
science as well as the theology of the Antiochian school was
under a cloud here also the Alexandrians triumphed.
;
The critical views of Theodore were condemned, along with

others, by the Second Council of Constantinople (533, The
Three Chapters) his works were zealously sought out and
;
destroyed. Only among the Nestorians, beyond the bounds

of the Empire, wêre his writings cherished, only there did
his rational method survive.
Through JuniHus' translation, Paul's compendious and

lucid Introduction to the Study of the Scriptures had, how-
ever, considerable influence in the West. Cassiodorus,
whose services as a statesman in his own time are not more
conspicuous than his efforts to keep the lamps of sacred and
profane learning aflame in the night of barbarism that was
settling upon Italy, in his De Institutione Divinarum
Literarum, which in many ways resembles Junilius' In-
stituta Regularia, names Junilius among the authors of
treatises on Introduction, and in the institution which he
founded at Viviers, "an asylum of literature and the liberal
arts," may well have had the great school at Nisibis in mind.
Through the Middle Ages, the compend of Junilius along
with that of Cassiodorus was used as a text-book. Junilius
was supposed to be an orthodox bishop, and the very un-
orthodox teaching of the book does not seem to have dis-
turbed anybody. The authority of Augustine, however,
who in his De Doctrina Christiana laid down a method of
interpretation not essentially different from Origen's, neu-
tralized the influence of the sounder principles of the Anti-
ochian scholar as well as the critical tradition represented
by Jerome.
THE TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM THE
ORIGINAL ARAMAIC GOSPELS
Charles C. Torrey
Yale University
The question of the original language (or languages) of

the Synoptic Gospels, or rather, of the documentary sources
which underlie them, is just now being earnestly discussed.
This is the question which perhaps occupies the central
point of interest in the present study of the New Testament
text. Recent investigations, or essays bearing on the sub-
ject, fall naturally into two main groups : those which ap-
proach the matter from the Semitic side, and those which
come to it from the side of a fresh studv of Hellenistic Greek.
On the one hand, the progress of Semitic studies has at
last made it seem possible to attack these most difficult
problems with good hope of partial success. Owing to the

accumulation of important new material, and to the help
given by more thorough linguistic investigation, we have
been gaining in recent years a greater familiarity with the
Aramaic idioms of Palestine, as well as with classical Hebrew.
Much that was uncertain only a short time ago is now firm
standing ground. The important equipment of the present-
day investigator from this side, however, does not so much
consist in the more exact knowledge of the Semitic languages,
and especially of Aramaic, as it does in a clearer understand-
ing of the literary problems involved, and of the whole
historical situation in which the first Christian writings
appear. It is not because of advance along any one line,
but along many lines of investigation, that important scraps
of evidence, often too minute to seem worthy of serious
notice, are now readily recognized and used, which a genera-
tion ago could hardly have been either observed or inter-
preted correctly. It is, therefore, a fact of considerable
significance that an increasing number of Semitic scholars
269
270 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAAIAIC GOSPELS
are holding more or less positively the theory of written

Semitic sources underlying at least a considerable part of
the Synoptic Gospels.
On the other hand, we have recently gained a very much
increased knowledge of the Hellenistic Greek which was
spoken and written at about the beginning of the Christian
era. Thanks especially to the great finds of papyri which
have been made in Egypt, a flood of light has been thrown
upon the kolvyi, both in its various dialects and in the

characteristics which it exhibits in all parts of the modern
Greek-speaking world. The result, for the study of the New
Testament in particular, has been a most important one.
Much of what had long been characterized as 'New Testa-
ment Greek' or 'Biblical Greek' is now found to have been
in common use elsewhere. Many peculiarities of vocabu-
lary and syntax which had been supposed to be due to the
influence of the Greek Old Testament or to that of Hebrew
or Aramaic dialects spoken in Palestine, are now shown to
have existed in regions and under circumstances where no
such influence could have been at work, and we are led to
conclude that these idioms belong to the inner development
of the vulgar Greek itself.
So far as the question of the original language of the Sy-
noptic Gospels is concerned, however, the situation has not
suffered any such change as some appear to believe. The
most New Testament who have dis-
of those students of the
cussed the phenomena brought to light by the widening of
the horizon of late Greek have failed to make any careful
distinction between the Greek of Paul and that of Matthew,
or between that in which the Epistle to the Hebrews is
written and that of the x^pocalypse. Many who had been
favorably disposed towards the theory of Semitic sources
in the Synoptic Gospels have abandoned that view, and
express their belief that "New Testament Greek" possesses
no peculiarities not shared by the profane Greek in ordinary
use at that time. There are thus, at present, two rival
camps, the one insisting on the evidences of translation
which appear in the first three Gospels, or elsewhere in the
New Testament, and the other denying the existence of
such evidence. The great majority of New Testament
CHARLES C. TORREY 271
scholars, it may be added, seem to belong to neither one of
these two parties, but content themselves with saying that

while it is quite possible that Aramaic or Hebrew documents
may have formed the basis of our Gospels, or of a portion of
the Acts, or of the Apocalypse, the fact cannot be demon-
strated at any point with absolute certainty. The question
of translation, they say, though interesting, is purely aca-
demic, and so far as assured practical results are concerned
it is no use to try to go behind our Greek sources
of little or
in the oldest form of them which we can reconstruct from
evidence of manuscripts and versions.
Some very industrious students of the whole problem
have concluded, in view of the new evidence, that the hypoth-
esis of Aramaic documents rendered into Greek is not only
unnecessary but untenable. Deissmann's Bibelstudien was

influential in this direction, though it was not directly
concerned with the main question, but merely contributed
material. Wernle, in his Synoptische Frage (1899), puts
it down as a "still unshaken fact" (eine immer noch uner-
schiitterte Thatsache) that our Gospels and their written

sources were originally Greek. There has been, however,
no thoroughgoing discussion of the matter from either side ;
indeed, it may fairly be said that thorough treatment of the

material in hand can hardly be expected at present. There
has been but one noteworthy presentation of the case from J
the Semitic side, namely that of Wellhausen, in his Einlei-
tung in die drei ersten Evangelien (first ed., 1905), supple-
mented by the notes accompanying his translation of the
Synoptic Gospels. Wellhausen's investigation, it is need-
less to say, is
masterly so far as it goes it might, however,
;
have been carried much further and made more convincing.

I shall often have occasion to refer to it in the sequel.
One thing that has made, and is still making, a good deal
of confusion in the discussion of these questions is a careless
use of terms. The comprehensive phrase 'New Testament
Greek' is still used very much too loosely, as though all of
the documents which make up this collection of writings were
written in one and the same approximately homogeneous
idiom.
To take one or two examples Professor J. H. Moulton in The
:
272 TRANSLATIONS MADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS
Expositor, 1904, p. 68, after speaking of the exploded theory

"
that the New Testament writers" wrote in a Greek which
derived its peeuharities chiefly from the Greek Old Testa-
ment and from the influence of the vernacular Aramaic, goes
on to say: "And now all this has vanished, for Biblical
Greek is isolated no more. Great collections of Egyptian
papyri published with amazing rapidity by the busy ex-
plorers who have restored to us so many lost literary treas-
ures during the last decade have shown us that the farmer
of the Fayum spoke a Greek essentially identical with that
of the Evangelists, The most convincing 'Hebraisms'
appear in the private letters of men who could never have
been in contact with Semitic influences." And on p. 67 :
"The disappearance of that word 'Hebraic' from our defini-
tions marks a revolution in the conception of the language in
which the New Testament is written." And, again, on
p. 74 "But the papyri have finally disposed of the assump-
:
tion that the New Testament was written in any other Greek
than the language of the common people throughout the
^
Greek-speaking lands."
But what is "Biblical Greek"? And what
the "lan- is
guage in which the New Testament If the

is written"?
question of possible Semitic sources for parts of the New
Testament is to be discussed seriously, this is a very bad way
to begin. So far as Semitic coloring is concerned, there are
great differences which need to be taken into account at the
outset. The Synoptic Gospels stand at a considerable dis-
tance from the Gospel of John in this regard, in spite of their
close literary relationship, while between the Synoptic
Gospels and the writings of Paul, for example, there is a
great gulf fixed. A layman after reading such statements
as those which I have just quoted would be likely to suppose
that the evidence of the papyri has already settled, or
nearly settled, the question of 'translation-Greek' in the
New Testament that it has shown, at all events, that the
;
hypothesis of such translation is not anywhere absolutely

necessary. But as a matter of fact, the evidence furnished
by the papyri and by inscriptions has hardly touched the
^
Repeated in his Grammar of New Testament Greek (1906), p. 18 f.
real question at all. In the case of most of the documents

of the New Testament, the question of translation from a
supposed Semitic original could never arise, among properly
equipped scholars. It is only in the case of a few of the writings
that the probability has been shown, and the line needs now
to be drawn more sharply than ever between these writings
and their fellows.
As Professor Moulton says (in this same series of articles,
passim), it has been shown that a good many words and
idioms which had been regarded as glaring Hebraisms, such
as lSov (used like Heb. nSH, etc.), ava /xeaov, and ivcoTnov
(like Heb. îsh, etc.) are occasionally met with in docu-

ments which are certainly not translations from Semitic
originals. This is not surprising, and in all probability still
other idioms which have been quite generally regarded as
peculiar to the "translation" language will be found in
original Greek compositions of this late period.
But these facts have very little bearing, after all, on the
question of the original language of the Gospel of Matthew,
or of Mark or Luke. It is a matter of very little consequence,
for the settling of this important question, whether eh as
an ordinal number, or iv with the instrumental meaning,
can be found in the Ptolemaic documents, or whether iyevero
is used with an infinitive in profane Greek. Even if every
so-called 'Semitic idiom' in the Synoptic Gospels were
found, occurring sporadically, in the kolvj (a quite impos-
sible supposition, by the way), the real argument for trans-
lation would not be weakened. The demonstration of such
occasional occurrences does not touch the real difference
between vulgar Greek and translation-Greek for the latter,
;
it must be insisted, does have its definite and recognizable
peculiarities. To illustrate, from the idioms which were

just mentioned : if any extensive papyrus
fragment should
come to light in which even these few idioms were all used,
not sporadically but constantly, and imbedded in a dialect
whose general characteristics were at least as obviously
Semitic as Greek, then the presumption would of necessity
be this, that the document had originally been composed in a
Semitic tongue. Only strong and unequivocal evidence to
the contrary could render any other hypothesis tenable.
To return to one or two of Moulton's statements. "The

farmer of the Fayum spoke a Greek essentially identical
with that of the Evangelists." This gives an altogether
erroneous impression. It may well be true that the Greek
spoken by Egyptian peasants very closely resembled that
spoken by the compilers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke but ;
that it even remotely resembled the language in which they

ivrote their Gospels is not true at all. No evidence which has
thus far come to light tends to show that such Greek as that
of the Gospels was ever spoken in any part of the world.
The idiom of the Synoptic Gospels, like that of the Apoca-
lypse, is half Semitic throughout. One characteristic Semitic
construction follows another, in verse after verse and on page
after page. The student of Aramaic and Hebrew is reminded
of these languages, not occasionally, but all the time, and this
is the important fact. Moulton says (ibidem), in speaking
of the Koivq, as exhibited in the papyri: "The most con-
vincing Hebraisms appear in the private letters of men who
could never have been in contact with Semitic influences."
But what is a "convincing Hebraism"? There is really
no such thing, so long as the discussion is concerned with
isolated phenomena. It is only when the idiom is one link
in a long chain that it becomes convincing then, indeed,
;
it may have an absolutely compelling The argument

force.
is cumulative;we are concerned with the continuous im-
pression made by a great mass of material, rather than with
a number of striking instances —
though these are to be had
in abundance when they are sought for. The fact is, we
have in this well-markedgroup of New Testament writings
a series which are Semitic in structure,
of compositions
although clothed in a Greek dress, and the just effect of
recent discoveries is to make this peculiarity seem all the
more striking. In all the mass of papyri and inscriptions
nothing similar has come to light, and we are therefore more
than ever in need of an adequate explanation. Can, then,
this Semitic-Greek represent a spoken dialect ?
It is true that uneducated people of the lower class, when
they are forced by circumstances to speak a foreign tongue,
sometimes create an uncouth patois, consisting of a more or
less ludicrous mixture of the two dialects, which they then
use in their more careless intercourse with one another. It

ispossible (though we have no evidence of it) that some such
Greek-Aramaic jargon, to which we might compare our
'Pennsylvania Dutch,' was used for a time in some part of
Palestine. But such jargons as these have obviously
nothing to do with the language of the New Testament
writings under discussion. No one of these writings is the
work of an unlettered man, no one of them is the work of
an unskilled author. In each case, we know ourselves to
be dealing with a man of culture, and of literary resources ;
one who was possessed of an extensive vocabulary, and knew
how to render shades of thought. When such men use a
mongrel they do so from deliberate choice. Here,
dialect,
the reason for the choice is obvious, it is the translator's
conception of his task. No other explanation thus far

proposed accounts for all the facts. This will perhaps
become more evident in the course of the discussion which
here follows. If the documents which underlie the Synoptic
Gospels were composed in vulgar Greek, why should this
Greek be anything else than the kolvti ? It is true that we
are not very well acquainted with the popular speech, yet
our knowledge of it has been much increased, until we are at
least able to assert with all emphasis that it is by no means
the language of the Gospels. The real effect of the recent
discoveries in the field of late Greek is, then, to isolate the
'translation' idiom of the Gospels from the most of the
remainder of the New Testament even more completely
than it had been isolated before. The contrast in which it
stands to the popular language which was ordinarily written
and spoken at that day is becoming more and more evident.
Its true affinities, on the other hand, are to be found in the
books of the Greek Old Testament. It will be in place, then,
to take some general notice of the language of the old Greek
renderings from the Semitic.
The translation-Greek of our Biblical books is a literary

product whose peculiarities deserve more attention than
they have hitherto received. The subject is not one that
can be treated satisfactorily in small compass, yet it is pos-
sible to set forth briefly some general truths with sufficient

clearness to aid in the present investigation.
It is true, on the one hand, that there are varieties of
translation-Greek. The ancient translators did conceive
their tasks in ways differing somewhat according to the
character of the work which they were rendering, and also
according to the period and the circumstances in which they
lived. In the Old Testament, where we have the necessary
materials for criticising the Greek versions, we can observe
this fact to good advantage. We have in our Greek Bible
a number of different kinds of faithful translation. Leaving
out of account such minor literary habits as could be taken
for granted, it can be shown in the case of not a few of the
Biblical books that the individual interpreter had his own
peculiar principles of procedure in rendering the Semitic
text which he had before him. Anything like a free para-
phrase, to be sure, we shall rarely find, and that only in occa-
sional passages but the ideas of what constitutes a true
;
reproduction are seen to vary considerably. Nevertheless,

many Old Testament scholars have failed to recognize the
fact that these renderings are not all alike and most of them
;
stillcontinue to operate with 'the LXX' (meaning the text

printed by Swete or Tischendorf) as though it were homo-
geneous, and to use it in Kings, or Ezekiel, or Koheleth, in
exactly the same way in which they had used it in the Penta-
teuch.
On the other hand, there are important particulars in
which the translations in our Bible, including both the Old
Testament and the New Testament, are essentially alike.
It is with these points of essential resemblance that I have
especially to do. As has already been said in the case of the
Old Testament, the Biblical translations are without excep-
tion close renderings, so far as we are now able to judge.
Speaking broadly, we can safely depend on every one of
them to follow its original faithfully, through thick and thin.
The occasional local exceptions, in more freely rendered
clauses or passages, do not affect the general rule. The
resulting idiom, viewed in passages sufficiently extended
to have a recognizable character, is never Greek, but always
a mixture at its best inelegant, and at its worst monstrous.
;
The reasons for this are worth seeking. Why should the
Alexandrine translators and their fellows have produced
this jargon, instead of an idiom more closely resembling their
own spoken or written Greek ? The question is most com-
monly answered by saying that they were attempting to
render sacred writings, every word of which had its super-
human value hence the anxious adhesion to the original.
;
This fact did always exercise a very considerable influence,

and was doubtless a chief cause of many painfully literal
renderings, especially in passages containing something
oracular or otherwise portentous. Generally speaking,
the later Biblical translations were more closely word-for-
word than the earlier, because of the increasing reverence
for the inspired writings ; this rule had its exceptions,
however. A very frequent cause of the conflation of Biblical
texts was the wish to include, side by side with the old
rendering, a new and more exact one. But the sanctity of
the originals is by no means the only reason, nor even the
principal reason, for the extreme literalness of these early
versions. Contemporary translations of writings which
were not regarded as sacred show in general the very same
do the renderings of the canonical books.
characteristics as
When the grandson of Bar Sira, for example, undertook to
turn his grandfather's Hebrew proverbs into Greek, in order to
give them the currency which they deserved, he produced the
same barbarous mixture —
incredibly awkward now and then
— which we find in the other Greek versions from the Hebrew.
Another explanation of these extremely close renderings
in theGreek Old Testament emphasizes the fact that Hebrew
was at that time going out of use as a spoken language.
The uncouth idiom of the 'Septuagint' was the result of
"the effort of Greek-speaking men to translate the already
obsolete and imperfectly understood Hebrew" (Moulton,
Grammar, p. 13). This is true to some extent, namely in
single words and occasional passages, which had passed
beyond the interpreter's ken, just as certain words and
phrases in Chaucer, Shakespeare, and even more recent
writers have ceased to be understood. Words have their
day, and drop out of sight local allusions, or the current
;
phrases of a certain period, soon lose their meaning, often

278 TRANSLATIONS IvIADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS
beyond recovery. Doubtless not a few things in our Hebrew

Bible which would have been perfectly transparent to any
Israelite in the time of Jeroboam II, or of Hezekiah, could
have been understood by no one in the time of Haggai and
Zechariah. Some authors, moreover, express themselves
so obscurely that their writings are full of riddles, difficult
enough for contemporaries, and often quite insoluble for
subsequent generations. The extent to which these old
Hebrew have been changed from their original form,
texts
in the course of time, must also be borne in mind. If the
prophet Hosea could have been confronted with his own
book in the shape in which it lay before its Greek translators,
the attempt to read and understand it offhand would cer-
tainly have staggered him. It is quite true, then, that
many queer specimens of the translator's jargon show that
the original was not understood ; this is very far, however,
from explaining translation-Greek as a whole. The Hebrew
language was not by any means unfamiliar, or imperfectly
understood, at the time when these first versions were made.
The author of First Maccabees wrote classical Hebrew as
easily and naturally as educated Swiss write High German,
and so doubtless did a multitude of his contemporaries, both
in Palestine and in the Dispersion. The Alexandrine trans-
lators knew Hebrew hardly less intimately than they knew
their own mother-tongue we are far more likely to under-
;
estimate than to overestimate their equipment in this regard.

Furthermore, the versions made from the Aramaic, while
it was a living language and perfectly well understood, have
precisely the same quality and the same peculiarities as

those made from the Hebrew.
The true source of 'translation-Greek' lies deeper than
either of these two reasons for occasional close rendering.
It lies in the translator's conception of his task. In what
way should he mirror in one language what had been written
in another ? In all times and places it has been the first
aim of the ordinary translator to render words rather than
ideas. Even where the version is comparatively 'free,'
the idiom of the original is retained. Obviously, this saves
time and trouble, and avoids a responsibility which would
generally be unwelcome. It would be a mistake to suppose,
however, that indolence was to any considerable extent

responsible for this method of translating. These Jews
of the Dispersion were willing to give any amount of time
and labor to their task, and wished to do it as well as it could
be done. But they could not have felt it to be incumbent
on them, or even desirable, to render into idiomatic Greek.
The original was not conceived in Greek, but in Hebrew or
Aramaic, and what they were required to do was to present
the same document in a Greek dress; this was the only way
in which they could make it accessible to Greek readers, and
at the same time let it speak for itself. This was the typical
attitude of the ancient translator, irrespective of the nature
of the text to be rendered.^ In modern times and among
men of letters the custom of literal rendering no longer
prevails but even modern translators who are imperfectly
;
trained resort to the old method. The 'schoolboy transla-

tion' is often referred to, in speaking of Old Testament
Greek, and the comparison is an apt one. Especially in

the more obscure parts of the Old Testament, the translator
must very often have felt that his task was too hard for him.
What he then did was to render the difficult, and often mani-
festly corrupt, text with desperate faithfulness. In dealing
with such passages the maxim was, and in the nature of the
case had to be, that of the schoolboy Try to put down some-
:
thing which shall correspond closely to each word of the

original
—
and never mind the sense.
2
The two Second Maccabees afford an interesting illustration
letters prefixed to
here, if my them
is correct.
opinion regarding They were certainly composed in a
Semitic tongue, probably Aramaic, and (if I am not mistaken) were translated by
the author of the book. He was one who wrote Greek with unusual fluency and
elegance, and was conscious of his ability; but the language of the two letters is,
as usual, the jargon of the translator, as far removed as possible from the untram-
melled idiom of the rest of the book. (See my article, "Second Maccabees," in the
Encyclopaedia Biblica.) This case can hardly fail to remind us of the beginning of
the Gospel of Luke, which (on any theory of the documents contained in it) pre-
sents a striking parallel. The prologue is written in elegant Greek then, Tvithout
;
warning, verse 5 begins with the uncouth mixture, a Semitic narrative merely trans-
ferred (and that not always successfully) into Greek words. Whether the author
of the Third Gospel translated this himself, or found it already translated, makes
little difference with the instructive fact, that a translation was not to be treated
as literature, but stood in a class by itself. That the author of the Gospel did not
compose this narrative in chaps. 1 and 2 himself, as many have supposed, I shall
show presently.
280 TRANSLATIONS AIADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS
It always to be borne in mind, to be sure, that in the

Is
ordinary course of translation, where there is no uncertainty

in the text, but only a smoothly running narrative or dis-
course, the translator allowed himself all sorts of small
liberties. Greek constructions and the Greek order of
words are freely substituted for the originalSemitic —
though almost never consistently'. Sometimes, indeed, the
extent to which this occasional freedom of rendering is
carried seems to us both unnecessary and mistaken. It

must be acknowledged that the translator's own literary
taste often seems to compel him to write idiomatic Greek
in sentence after sentence, in spite of the respect for the orig-
inalevidenced by his habit in the main. The most of the
renderings which constitute the Greek Bible, both Old
Testament and New, are admirable performances from their
own point of view, and in no inconsiderable part they are
admirable from any and every point of view, even that of
modern literarj'^ art.
It iswith the defects of these versions, however, and
especially with their slavishly literal character on the whole,
that I am just now concerned. Reduce the ancient inter-
preter really to straits, and his performance adding word
—
to word in a meaningless succession —
is frequently nothing
short of ludicrous.
By way of illustration, I subjoin a few modern specimens
of translation. The first two are attempts at 'sight-render-
ing' recently made by schoolboys who presumably had
studied for several years the languages which they were
here required to turn into English. Each one is a serious
effort, made in the endeavor to pass an examination and ;
in each case I have printed the paper exactly as it was sub-

mitted, without making any alteration whatever.
The first 'translation' (from Ovid) is evidently the work
of one who had gained some familiarity with the Latin
vocabulary, but did not regard it as any part of his duty to
write what should make good sense.
Postquam, Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso.

Sub love mundiis erat: siibiit argentea proles,
Auro deterior. fidvo pretiosior acre,
lupiter antiqui contraxit tempora veris:
Perque hiemes, aestusque, et inaequales aidumrws,

Et breve ver, spatiis exegit quatuor annum.
Turn primurn siccis aer jervorihus ustus
Conduit : et ventis glacies adstrida pependit.
The translation :
"Afterwards, when Saturn was sent into darkest Tartar, he lay

buried under Jove. His offspring emerged at an early age, weakened
by the gold, and made prettier by the yeUow bronze. Jupiter
dragged the season of former spring and he lived for a period of four
;
years, through the winters, the summers, the extra long autumns,
and the short spring. Then, accustomed to the cold of some cen-
turies he lived on, and hung exp>osed to the icy winds."
The second example illustrates especially that variety of
rendering in which the translator (still feeling under no obli-
gation to make good sense) is repeatedly misled by the appear-

ance of a word, mistaking it for another which more or less
closely resembles it.
Je tombai hier par hasard sur un maiitais litre d'un nommi Dennis;
caril y a aussi de mechants ecrivains parmi les Anglais. Cet auteur,
dans une petite relation d'un sejour de quinze jours qu'il a fait en France,
s'avise de voidoir faire le caradere de la nation qu'il a en si bien le t^mps
de connaitre.
The translation :
"I through chance, imder an evil life of one named Dennis,

fell heir,
for there were besides some empty crîngs by the English. This
author, in a little adventure of a sojourn of fifteen days which he had
made in France, ad\'ised himself that he wished to make the character
of the nation which he had seen so weU the time of his birth."
These two specimens are extreme cases, and it is for that

very reason that I have chosen them. Thev serve all the
better to illustrate the attitude of the primitive translator ;
it is not his business to think, but only to reproduce. I have
no intention of implying that the truly scholarly versions
made by the Alexandrine interpreters are to be classed, even
for a moment, with such ignorant and awkward perform-
ances as these still, the two examples will not seem irrele-
;
vant to anv one who has carefullv studied the Greek Old
Testament in the light of a thorough knowledge of Hebrew.
There is no sort of blunder in these two passages which can-
not be paralleled over and over again in those numerous

parts of the Greek Bible which were hastily or unskilfully
rendered. Even the instances in which the translator is
misled by the resemblance, in appearance or sound, of an
English word to the French or Latin with which he is strug-
gling (pretiosior
= 'prettier'; usiiis
= 'used'; hier = 'heir';
livre =
'life,' etc.) remind the experienced student of
will
the Old Testament of similar cases in spite of the wide —
gulf between Greek and Hebrew.
More instructive than the passages in which the translator
does not pretend to write anything comprehensible are those
in which he merely follows his original so closely as to pro-
duce a hideous variety of Greek, sufficiently intelligible,
perhaps, to those who were likely to read it. Striking ex-
amples of this sort are to be seen on almost every page of
our 'Septuagint' texts. To give a few illustrations: Num.
ix. 10, "A.v6pa)TT0<i avBpeoTTO^ 69 iav yevrjrai aKddapro<i iirl 'Î'XV
avOpoiTTOV, rj iv ohcp fiuKpav vfilv 7) ev rat? <yeveal<i v/jlwv, koI
TToiâret TO Trda-'xâ Kvpia).^ Every reader of the Hebrew
Bible, eventhe latest Hellenistic period,
in knew per-
fectly well that the tr^K tT-'X of the Pentateuchal laws
' '
meant whoever ; yet the interpreter chose to imitate the
phrase in this surprisingly awkward manner, and so on
throughout the verse. Or take 1 Chron. xv. 21 as rendered
in the Syrian (L) recension kuI Marraîa?
: Kal 'Oîa? . . .
iv Kivvpai9 irepl Trj<; 67S07;? rov evLa')(vaai,. Or Is. xliv. 10, 11a :
QL Oebv Kal y\v(f)OVTe<;, irdvre'i avaxfieXrj, Kal Trdvre^;

irXdcrcrovTe'i
odev iyevovTO i^rjpdvOrjaav Kal K(0(f>ol airo avOpcoircov auvaxîj-

•
Tcoaav TTctyre? k.t.X. The grandson of Bar Sira understood

his grandfather's proverbs, and turned them into Greek with
"much watchfulness and skill," as he informs us; he cer-
tainly had no need to cling anxiously to the letter of the
original yet his work of rendering is exactly like that of
;
all the others, and abounds in such performances as those
just cited.
When we come to the criteria by which translation-Greek
is to be recognized, we are on somewhat difficult ground.
^
This example of translator's Greek is given by Conybeare and Stock in their
Selections from the Septuagint, p. 23.
Long Semitic documents, dealing with familiar themes,

written in simple prose and containing no very difficult
clause by clause, in
passages, may be reproduced faithfully,
a Greek which —
though plainly not classical sounds —
quite like an original composition. How shall the fact of
translation be demonstrated ? The most obvious kind of
evidence, and the only kind of which use is made by the great
majority of investigators, is that which is found in occasional
phrases and constructions which "sound Semitic rather than
Greek." Evidence of this sort is vastly important, yet its
precariousness can hardly be asserted too strongly. So far
as it is a matter of a few isolated cases, it gives very uncer-
tain footing, and is not infrequently deceptive where the
examples seem most striking. We are not very well ac-
quainted with the KOLvr), after all, and are constantly liable
to surprise when idioms supposed to be only Semitic suddenly
turn up in the vulgar speech of the Hellenistic period. It
now and then happens, too, that some factor quite over-
looked by us has influenced the form of words.^
Another criterion to which appeal must occasionally be
made is that of mistranslation. Some word, phrase, or
sentence sounds very improbable in the context where it
stands we reduce the Greek to its equivalent in Aramaic or
;
Hebrew, and seem to discover that the translator had mis-

understood his original. Arguing from the double meaning
of certain words, the ambiguity of clause-division, the prob-
ability of slight corruption in the text, and the like, we restore
what seems to us to be the sense intended by the original
author. Evidence of this variety is immensely valuable in
the rare cases where it is convincing there is no other inter-
;
nal proof of translation, indeed, which is so immediately

cogent. But the need of caution is greater here than any-
where else. The more experience one has in this field, the
more plainly he sees the constant danger of blundering. Our
Every list of examples of this nature is sure to contain its slips. Thus
^ Well-
hausen, Einleitung, ed. 1, p. 19, in the course of his endeavor to find traces of
Ara-
maic circumstantial clauses in the Greek of the Gospels, says: "Ein weiteres
zweifelhaftes Beispiel ist Lc. 19. -14 koL to. r^Kva aov ev <rol, welche Worte
jedenfalls nicht Object zu i5a(j)i.ov<Tiv sein konnen." Nevertheless, the words are
the object of the verb, as appears from comparison of Nah. iii. 10; Hos. x. 15,
xiv. 1.
ignorance of grammar, vocabulary, literary usage, customs,

and history is necessarily colossal, especially in the case of
the Semitic peoples and even the most careful modern
;
exegete is likely to mistake the meaning of the ancient author

with whom he is dealing. Hence it happens in nine cases
out of ten that renewed study of the 'mistranslations'
which we have discovered shows us either that there was no
translation at all, or else that it was quite correct.
By far the most important criterion for determining the
fact of translation is the continual presence, in texts of con-
siderable extent, of a Semitic idiom underlying the Greek.
The demonstration of this nature is the most satisfactory
of all, generally speaking, but it should be added that no
other kind of evidence requires for its use more painstaking
or a longer preparation. Even a novice in the linguistic
field may recognize Semitic idioms here and there mistakes ;
in translation may be pointed out by insufficiently equipped

men but only veterans, long trained in both Greek and
;
Semitic, and especially in the latter, can say with justified

confidence, after studying a composite work These chapters :
were composed in Semitic, those in Greek this was orig- ;
inally Hebrew, that was Aramaic. Indeed, where the char-

acter of the composition favors the use of short and simple
sentences, making it possible for Greek and Semite to express
themselves in much the same way, in page after page, it
may be well-nigh impossible to tell what was the tongue in
which the work was originally written. In any case, the
argument is cumulative, indications that would be quite
insignificant if taken by themselves becoming highly impor-
tant as links in a long chain.
I illustrate again by a modern instance, taking at random
a passage from a printed translation of a too familiar type.
Then, far from the waves, is seen Trinacrian iEtna ; and from a
distance we hear a loud growling of the ocean, the beaten rocks, and
the murmurs of breakers on the coast the deep leaps up, and sands are
:
mingled with the tide. And, says father Anchises, doubtless this is the
famed Charybdis these shelves, these hideous rocks Helenus fore-
;
told. Rescue us, my friends, and with equal ardour rise on your oars.
They do no otherwise than bidden and first Palinurus whirled about
;
the creaking prow to the left waters. The whole crew, with oars antl sails,
bore to the left. We mount up to heaven on the arched gulf, and down
CHARLES C. TORRE Y 285
again we settle to the shades below, the wave having retired. Thrice
the rocks bellowed amid their hollow caverns thrice we saw the foam
;
dashed up, and the stars drenched with its dewy moisture. . . .
The port itself is ample, and undisturbed by the access of the winds ;
but, near it, iEtna thunders with horrible ruins, and sometimes
sends forth to the skies a black cloud, ascending in a pitchy whirlwind
of smoke and glowing embers throws up balls of flame, and kisses the
;
stars sometimes, belching, hurls forth rocks and the shattered

:
bowels of the mountain, and with a rumbling noise wreaths aloft the
molten rocks, and boils up from its lowest bottom. Lying that
. . .
night under covert of the woods, we suffer from those hideous prodi-
gies ;nor see what cause produced the sound. For neither was there
the light of the stars, nor was the sky enlightened by the starry firma-
ment but gloom was over the dusky sky, and a night of extreme dark-
;
ness muflfled up the moon in clouds.
Any classical scholar who knows something of the history

of 'translation-English' in our academic life would recog-
nize this at once, whether he had ever read Vergil or not.
No amount of reasoning, or demonstration of the occurrence
of these same idioms, one by one, in free compositions in
the English language, could lead him to doubt his first con-
clusion. This is not an English that was ever spoken, or
freely composed, by any man or class of men. It is Latin
in more or less awkward English garb, and a product of a
very common type of translation. The evidence is persist-

ent, cropping out again and again until its aggregate amount
is quite decisive. It would, of course, be possible for one
who was completely master of both Latin and English to
imitate this translator's jargon by a tour de force, whether
as a joke or as an academic exercise. But it is needless
to say that such an imitation could never rise above the level
of an ugly curiosum.
It is the constant reiteration of indications perhaps unim-
portant when taken separately, but compelling in the
aggregate, that confronts us in such passages as Luke i. 8 ff. :
^<yivero ev rat? rjfiepat'; 'UpwSov âcrCKeco'^ ttjs:^ louSata? lepev'i Tt?
ovofxaTL Zwxâpia^ ef i(j)r]/X€pia<; 'A/Sta, Kal <yvvr} aura) €K roiv Ovya-
repcov 'Aapcov, Koi ro ovofxa avry)^ '^Xeicrd^€T. rjcrav he SiKaiot
ivavTiov tov Oeov^ iropevofievoc ev Trdaai^ raL<; ivroXal^
ctfjLcfiOTepot
Kal SiKateofiaaiv tov Kvpiov a/ue/iTrrot. Kal ovk rjv avTol<i rcKVOVy
KadoTi rjv 'EXetcra/SeT crreipa, Kal dficfjorepoi irpoê^^qKore^ ev ral<>
rj/xepai<i avrwv rjaav. '^yevero 8e ev ru) lepareveiv avrov ev tt}
286 TRANSLATIONS JMADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS
TaêL Tr]<; icj^rjfMepia^ avTOV evavri rov deov Kara to e9o<i t^? lepa-
reia? eXax^ tov 6vficd(Tat K.r.e. The Semitic idioms continue
to appear throughout the whole course of this introductory
narrative contained in the first two chapters of the Gospel.
Also in the poetical passages which lie imbedded in the nar-
rative and are quite inseparable from it occur such idioms as
eTTOirjaeKpdro^ iv /3/3a%ioyt auTOU (i. 51), v7r€pr](f>dvov<; hiavoia

Kap8ia<; avrcov (ibid.), rov Bovvai rj/jilv d(f)6^(o<; etc %€i/>o? e')(^9pS)V
pvaddvra<i Xarpeveiv avrCo (i. 74 f.), Sia cnrXd^jfva iXeov^ deov
r)p.Syv (i. OTTO)? av a7roKa\v(f)d(oaiv e/c ttoWwv KapSicov 8(.a\o-
78),
^la/jLoi 35). This is not the kocvi] of Palestine.
(ii. It is not
"the dialect of the market place of Alexandria." It is not
even "the colloquial Greek of men whose original language
and ways of thinking were Semitic, and whose expression
was influenced at every turn by the phraseology of the Old
Testament." ^ It is translation-Greek, and nothing else. I
do not believe that any ancient writer, Jewish or Christian,
ever produced Greek of this variety by any natural literary
process. It could not have been produced unconsciously,
that is certain. Could anyone write unconsciously even
the smoothest of the translation-English which I have just
quoted ?
It has been a favorite theory in recent years that the com-

piler of the Third Gospel deliberately imitated the language
of the Greek Old Testament, in order to give his narrative
the flavor of the sacred books. But the motive for such a
grotesque performance on is by no means apparent.
his part
The jargon of the Alexandrine translators had no exclusive
sanctity of its own. Some revered writings, such as the
Wisdom of Solomon, were composed in excellent Greek.
Josephus, who knew the Greek Bible as well as any man,
composed language free from Hebraisms.
his history in a
There could be no purpose of archaizing, for the Greek of
the 'Seventy' was not archaic, it was merely the deformed
Greek of the translator. Luke, and his friend Theophilus,
and every educated man of the time, knew the difference
perfectly well.
But even Wellhausen thinks of the imitation of the trans-
lation lingo,by an evangelist who was composing freely in
^
Conybeare and Stock, Selections from the Septuagint, p. 21.
Greek, as a plausible thing. He says in the first edition of

his Einleitiing, p. 34 "Es giebt ein Judengriechisch, welches
:
iinter dem Einfluss der Septuaginta steht und sich kennzeich-

net diirch Aufnahme von allerhand Biblicismen. Markus
ist ziemlich frei davon, nicht aber Matthaus und Lukas.
Sie betreffen vorzugsweise das Lexicon oder die Phraseologie,
doch auch den Stil. Die Hymnen im ersten Kapitel des
Lukas sind beinah ganz aus Reminiscenzen zusammengesetzt
und konnen sehr wol griechisch concipirt sein, wenn-
gleich das nicht notwendig ist." In the second edition
(1911) he omits the first sentence of this quotation, and also
the last clause of its closing sentence, the remainder of which
he transposes to a place (page 8, top) where it directly follows
some examples of this supposed imitation on Luke's part.
That is, Wellhausen believes the first two chapters of Luke
to have been composed in Greek.
But I do not think that these views can be maintained.
The possibility of a "Judengriechisch" modelled upon the
Old Testament versions may perhaps be admitted ; though
I feel sure of this, at least, that no specimen of the kind has
thus far come to light. Whenever Luke gives us a succession
of Hebraisms, he is either himself translating or else incor-
porating the translation of another. As for the hymns in
the first chapters of Luke, not even a very ingenious deceiver
could have concocted them, unless in this one way by
— —
:
writing them or at least conceiving them in a Semitic

tongue and then rendering them into Greek. When Luke
writes iiroL-qa-e Kpdro'i iv /Spa'x^tovL avrov (a phrase not found
in the Greek Old Testament), he or some one else is ren-
dering 1!;1"lf3 b'^tl ^*^V or (less probably) its Aramaic equiv-
alent. It is a translation of the painfully literal kind,
rendering word by word without regard to the meaning.
The same thing is true all through the two chapters I ;
shall return to them presently, bringing decisive proof of the

underlying Semitic original.
The general conclusion as to the documents of the New
Testament whose Greek has a distinct and continuous
Semitic tinge is this, that they were translated no other ;
conclusion is justified by the evidence which is at present

available. The hypothesis of a writer using the kocpij and
writing under the strong influence of the Greek Old Testa-

ment falls far short of accounting for the facts. No theory
of imitation is tenable unconscious imitation could not
;
possibly produce anything like what we have, and the delib-

ate effort could serve no end worthy of an author who was
writing seriously and with high purpose. It has been cus-
tomary to appeal to certain books of the Apocrypha and

Pseudepigrapha, and to the Apocalypse of the New Testa-
ment, as examples of writings composed in Semitic-sounding
Greek but the fact is that all of the books thus cited as wit-
;
nesses were originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and our

Greek versions are merely translations more or less literal.®
The problem of translation in the Third Gospel is perhaps

more interesting, and certainly more complicated, than
anywhere else in the New Testament. We know that the
Gospel was originally compiled in Greek but the most of its ;
sources were at least ultimately Semitic, and there is good

reason to believe that a very considerable and important
part of the material actually lay before the compiler (Luke)
in the form of Aramaic and Hebrew documents. Did Luke
use the 'Teachings of Jesus' (the source called Q) in Ara-
maic ? Was the Greek version of this document which is
incorporated in his Gospel made by himself, or by some one
else ? Did he consult the Aramaic Gospel of Mark ? How
are the translations in the Third Gospel related if they —
are related at all —
to the renderings of the corresponding
documents in the Gospel of Matthew ? What is the evi-
dence of Semitic sources used by Luke alone ? These are
the principal questions of this nature which need to be
answered.
The author of the Gospel says, in his brief but very impor-
tant prologue, that 'many' before his time had undertaken
to write narratives dealing with the life and work of Jesus.
He also distinctly implies, in his claim of thoroughness and
accuracy in his own work, that he had examined this older
*
Moulton says, to be sure, in the Expositor, 1904, p. 71 "Even the
Professor :
Greek of the Apocalypse itself does not seem to owe any of its blunders to Hebra-
ism." I admit that the Semitic original of the Apocalypse has not yet been satis-
factorily demonstrated, though it is certainly capable of demonstration.

material and used such of it as he found valuable 'EireiS'q- :
irep TToWol iirex^Cprjo-av avardâaOai Bctj'yrjcnv ., eSoê ku/xoI

. .
dvcodev nrdatv d.Kpiâ)'? Ka6e^r}<i aot jpdyjraL^. .

.
TraprjKoXovdrjKOTL
iva iTTtyvan irepl oiv KaTr]')(^7]0r}<; Xoycov rrjv d(T(f)dX€Lav. Examina-
tion of the Gospel shows that its author did indeed search
widely and successfully. In working through the two stand-
ard collections, that is, substantially, the 'Vita' written by
Mark and the 'Teachings' now designated by the letter Q,
there is plenty of evidence to show that he sifted his material
and went back to the oldest sources available. In not a few
instances it can be shown that his divergence from the form
of words given by Matthew is the result of another rendering
of an Aramaic original. He also found and incorporated
new material, not used by Mark or Matthew, and here again
the question of translation comes forward prominently.
In Palestine, the one and only land of native tradition as to
the life of Jesus, it was most natural that at least a consider-
able portion of the earliest documents dealing with his life
and work should be composed and circulated in the Aramaic
language, which was the vernacular in all parts of the coun-
try, and had long been used for literary purposes. An
Aramaic literature of considerable extent did grow up about
Jesus and the apostles, as we know with certainty. The
original Mark was composed in Aramaic, and that was also
v/
the language in which the 'Teachings' (Q) were written.
The Semitic source underlying the first half of Acts was
probably Aramaic. But among the 'many gospels' and
briefer compositions which formed the earliest group of
writings dealing with the Prophet of Nazareth and his teach-
ings it is altogether likely that some few would have been
written in Hebrew. Especially after the doctrine of Jesus
the Messiah had been well developed, and the conviction that
the lives of Jesus and John the Baptist were the true and
necessary completion of the Old Testament history had
taken its mighty hold on the Jewish Christians, the sacred
tongue, Hebrew, could hardly fail to be used in some liter-
ary work designed to bridge the apparent gap between the
two great periods. It is probable a priori that to any col-
lector of traditions, discourses, and other historic material
these Semitic documents would appeal as especially 'au-
then tic' No other man of whom we have knowledge would

have been so likely as the author of the Third Gospel to
search out the remains of this literature and make use of
what he could find. Inasmuch as the greater part of it
(at least) must have been published only a few decades
before the time when he wrote, it would be strange indeed
if the most of the documents were not still to be had, in
one form or another; the only question could be whether

he was able to get at them. Luke's attitude in this matter,
the measure of his success in finding 'authentic' material,
the form in which the documents came into his hands, and his
mode of procedure in dealing with them, are all questions of
far-reaching importance for the study of the Synoptic Gospels.
The best starting point is afforded by the 'Gospel of the
Infancy,' comprising the first two chapters of Luke. Here
is a narrative which was certainly not invented by Luke
himself. It is not based on oral tradition, in fact it has none
of the characteristics of such tradition, but is from beginning
to end the conception of a litterateur of skill and taste, who
wrote in the spirit of the Old Testament narratives. The
style, which is homogeneous throughout, is as far removed
from that of the preceding prologue as the east is from the
' '
west. The Greek is distinctly of the translation variety,
altogether like that of the Greek books of Samuel, or 1 Mac-
cabees, or Judith. It is not a matter of occasional or fre-
quent Hebraisms, the style is one continuous Hebraism. I

have already touched upon the language of these two chap-
ters, inthe preceding general discussion, reserving for this
place the proof that the narrative was composed in a Semitic
tongue.
Luke i. 39 reads as follows avaa-Taa-a Be MaptafM iv Tat<i
:
-^/jbepafi ravrai^ iiropevOr] et9 rrjv opetvrjv iiera a7rov8y)<i el<i

ttoXlv
'^
'lovBa, Kol elarfkdev eh tov oIkov Zw^âpiov, K.r.e. "And Mary
arose in those days and went into the hill country with
haste, to .
., and entered into the house of Zachariah,"
.
etc. The phrase eh ttoKlv '\ovBa has been an unsolved riddle.

It cannot mean 'to a city of Judah (or Judea),' which would
be eh ttoXlv rri<i 'lovBaia<i, as in verse 26 of this chapter. The
only permissible rendering is 'to the city (named) Judah,'
but there was no city of that name. No commentator has
been able to suggest any plausible explanation of the phrase.

The Greek text shows no variation, and there is no reason
to doubt its correctness. But as soon as we go back of the
Greek to the underlying Semitic, the original meaning of
the troublesome phrase is evident. What the author of the
narrative wrote was rniH"' nnS2 7X, and the translation
should have been et? ttjv %&)/3ay r?}? 'lovSata?, 'to the province
of Judea.' Itthe phrase which occurs, for example, in

is
Ezra V. 8, xnritt *7in^7, where the Greek has ek ttjv x^P^^^

Tr)? 'lovSaiw;, and in 2 Mace. i. 1, ev rrj x^PH: '^^'^ 'lovBaia^; ;
cf. also Neh. i. 3, xi. 3. That this was the intent of the
author is made still more evident by the comparison of
verse 65, Kal ev Q\r) rrj opeivrj t?}<? 'louSata? SieXaXelro to. , . .
prjixara, and ii. 4, avejSrj he Kal 'laxrrjcf) .

Naâped
. . €k Tro'Xea)?
ek TTJV 'lovSaiav. In mentioning the journey from Nazareth

to the neighborhood of Jerusalem, it was most natural to
speak of passing through the hill country into Judea; thus in
the book of Judith, where the narrator is dealing with this
same route, he represents the high priest in Jerusalem as
'*
calling upon the people of Shechem and Samaria to hold the
passes into the hill country, because through them was the
entrance into Judea," hLaKaraax^Lv Ta<; avajBda-eL^ rr}? opeivr}<i,
oTi Bi,' avTOiv Tjv rj ecaoBo<i ek rrjv ^YovBaiav. The reason why
the Greek of Luke i. 39 mistranslates is perfectly obvious,
and a very good one because in the first century a.d. the
:
use of Tyryi in the signification '^province' was practically

obsolete, having been supplanted by the meaning 'city.'
As I have pointed out elsewhere,'' the uniform meaning of
the word (whether Hebrew or Aramaic) in the Old Testa-
ment was 'province'; yet its use to mean 'city' was also
common as early as the second century B.C., as seems to be
shown by the old Greek translation (TroXt?) in Dan. xi. 24.
By the second century a.d. the meaning 'city' was the only
usual one. Thus we have DpS3 n3''1X2, 'the city of
Chalcis,' in the Megillath Taanith; and the translator
Symmachus even 'corrects' the xdapa of the older Greek
versions of the Old Testament to tto'Xi? in 1 Kings xx. 14,
Dan. viii. 2 and (presumably also his correction) in the
;
^
"Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel," in the Transactions of the Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 15. 259 f. (1909).
conflate Hexaplar text of Neh. i. 3, iv ry x^PI ^^ '^d "ôXei.

The mistranslation in Dan. viii. 2 is a perfect parallel to the
one in Luke, for the Hebrew reads H]"'!^.'! Db'"D, which
Symmachus renders 'in the city ( !) Elam.'- The word con-
tinued to keep its old meaning in the phrase 'the province
of Judea,' in Jewish circles, long after the beginning of the
Christian era as appears, for example, from the occur-
;
rence of the phrase in the Midrash Echa (see Dalman's

Dialektproben, p. 15, line 5 from the bottom).
Taken in connection with all the other indications of
translation —
the glaring Hebraisms, the constant presence
of a Semitic idiom underlying the Greek this evidence —
of mistranslation is absolutely decisive. I believe that the
original document was Hebrew, not Aramaic for the :
Aramaic Kn3''1i2 *T\TVh would hardly have been rendered by

et9 TToXiv 'loySa. The word IIIT^ could not well have been
misunderstood ;1 moreover, it does not look like the name
of a town, nor would it have been transliterated by \ovZa.
It is also true in general that the idioms underlying the
Greek of the two chapters suggest classical Hebrew rather
than Aramaic. The beginning of the narrative, for example,
ran about as follows: inx ]Tt2 mVT "]bX2 Dm^H ^D^D n^"^^
:jstr^bs T\f2m pHK m33s: rw^ iSi n^ns nni^'^Dtt iDtr nnai
vtoDtrtti mn^ riîr^ Sdd o^Dbh wrh^n ^:th nyî nrvvcv
.nirri^'2 n^xn nnîtn nii^; :jDtt?''bx ^d *iS^ nrh pxr .u^rin
'1J1rwr yh}:^ rSx kti" n'nbpn jhitd f^n?. The Hebrew

idioms fit the Greek exactly. Aramaic would not always
be so natural ; for example, in the phrase irpoê^-qKore^ iv ral'i
'qixepai'i the original had 2''^^! at the

avTwv, in verse 7. If
end of verse 6, as seems very plausible, then it may well
be that the idiom intended was the one which is found in
Ps. XV. 2, Ixxxiv. 12 Pr. xxviii. 18, etc., i.e. ("[^n)
; CD^n . . .
D^t2^, the adjective being really singular instead of plural.

*
This
is pretty certainly the verb rendered by eXaxe. See Mishna, Tamid
5, 4, where the technical phrase occurs: muSpS HSTty ''tt, "Whoever obtained
by lot the duty of offering incense," and compare the common use of the word
to mean 'obtain (by lot), attain,' etc. I am indebted for this suggestion to
Prof. G. F. Moore, who remarks that the tract Tamid is one of the oldest in
the Mishna, and the terminology doubtless much older still.
There are other evident mistranslations in the Greek of

this document, aside from the one in i. 39. In i. 59-64 are
recounted the marvels which attended the circumcision of
the child John. The narrator then adds that fear fell upon
all the neighbors, and that these things were talked about
in all that region, men
saying: "What is to become of this
boy, jor the hand
the miraculous power) o/ the Lord is
{i.e.
"
ivith him! But our Greek translation has made the aston-
ished exclamation consist only of the question, "What is to
"
become of this boy ^ while the added reason, that the power
of Yah we was shown in these miracles which were "talked
about," is now changed into a general remark made by the
narrator himself. The original had simply 1^!J TKV ^'D, T
and the rendering should have been "for the hand of the :
Lord is with him," iari instead of rjv.

The zeugma in verse 64, avew'x^dri he to aro/xa avrov koI
rj ryXwaaa avrov, 'his mouth and his tongue were opened,'
does not point to any similar awkwardness in the original,
for the very same verb, nnS3, would regularly be used
either of 'opening' the mouth or of 'setting free' the tongue.
In ii. 1 we read e^rfkOev Boyfia
:
a'jro<ypd<^€adaL Trdcrav
. . .
T7)v ocKovfxevrjv. The original was of course |^"lXn 7D, and it
probably meant land' (of Palestine), not 'all the world.'

'all the
ii. 11 contains an obvious error of translation, in the words
'
09 eariv xpto'ro'i Kvpio^. The Hebrew had mn"' n'^'ii''p, Yahwe's
Anointed' and the rendering in Greek should have been
Kvpiov or 6 y^ptcTTo^ tov icvpiov (cf. VS. 26).
'X^piaTO'i
The hymns which imbedded in the narrative
lie and —
never existed apart from it —
sound distinctly more like
Hebrew than like Aramaic. The poems most nearly akin
to them, in the Hebrew literature with which we happen to
be acquainted, are the so-called Psalms of Solomon, which
were written near the middle of the last century B.C. Like
the best of those, the hymns in Luke are fresh and vigorous
compositions,^ which in their original form must have been
*
The fact that the language "consists largely of reminiscences" is not a blem-
ish. The devotional poetry of any religion of long standing must use familiar
phrases it could not otherwise have its intended effect.
; Moreover, in this case
the aim of emphasizing the messianic idea necessitated an especially full and sug-
gestive use of the messianic phrases of the Old Testament.
finespecimens of Hebrew poetry. The metrical structure —

rhythmic beats
lines of three —
can generally be recognized ;
indeed, wherever the style is lofty and the language poetic

the same regular rhythm returns, as in any late Hebrew
composition. Thus, for example, i. 13-17, 30-33, ii. 34 f.
In ii. 14 we seem to have a fine example of a rhymed

tristich :
ab^ l^nxn Sri

^'"'^T^ D^'C3xn
Some of the idioms which appear most barbarous in the

Greek belong properly to the high style of Hebrew psalmody.
A case of this sort is the line 13JT1D Sti ntl'!? in i, 51 (already
mentioned). Another is in i. 78, Bia airXd'yxya ekeov; Oeov
'
t-jfioiv, ^TTh\^ nsn ^S?n"lD, through the gracious compassion of

our God.' In all these poetical passages the translation
follows the original word by word, and clause by clause, as
is the case also in the Greek Old Testament. It is therefore
allbut impossible to suppose that aô'/3a)9 in i. 74 was con-
nected with Xarpeveiv (vs. 75) in the original poem. The
Hebrew had something like this :
'
To
give us release from fear, rescued from the power of our
foes, that we might serve him in holiness, and in righteous-
ness before him, all our days.' The poetic compound
rri^fTKb, 'fearlessness,' naturally gave trouble to the trans-
lator.
A very important fact to be noticed, in connection with
the Greek of this 'Gospel of the Infancy,' is the extent to
which it exhibits the language of Luke ^^ himself. His
vocabulary and style have been studied very carefully by
many scholars, and the main results are familiar. Whoever
^^
Granting the fact of translation (and it must be granted), the ex-idence here in
favor of against evdoKias, will probably be con\Tncing to scholars in
eiidoKla, as
proportion as they have studied the details of Hebrew prosody.

I use the name merely for convenience, without intending to express an opinion
^'
as to the authorship of the Third Gospel.

examines such classified lists as those in Pliimmer's com-
mentary, pp. li-lxiii, for example, will see that the evidence
of Luke's authorship of the Greek of chapters i and ii is
quite decisive. Both number and nature of the character-
istic words and usages are such as to leave no room for doubt.
As Plummer says (p. Ixix) : "The peculiarities and character-
istics of Luke's style and diction . . . run through our Gos-
pel from end to end. ... In the first two chapters they are
^^
perhaps somewhat more frequent than elsewhere.'''' Observe
also the two passages from these chapters which he has
printed on page Ixx, with indication of the words and phrases
which are more or less characteristic of the author of the
Gospel. Yet this narrative has not been worked over or
rewritten by Luke on the contrary, it bears with especial
;
plainness the marks of a very close rendering as Plummer ;
observes (pp. xlix f.), no part of the Gospel is more uncom-

promisingly Hebraistic than the narrative of these twô
opening chapters. The only natural conclusion that can
be drawn, and the one to which every indication seems to
point, while there is really nothing of importance that can
be said against it, is this, that the author of the Third Gospel
himself translated the Narrative of the Infancy from Hebrew
into Gi'eek. The manner of the beginning of this Gospel,
then, affords an interesting parallel to that of the beginning
of 2 Maccabees, already referred to, inasmuch as the author
of the latter book begins with a fairly close translation,
made by himself ,^^ of certain Aramaic documents, at the con-
clusion of which he proceeds at once with his own fluent
and elegant Greek, the contrast being quite as striking as
that in Luke's Gospel.
Having thus established the fact that Luke was really
successful in his search for original Semitic material, and
^^
The mine.
italics are
^^
demonstration of this fact in the article "Die Briefe 2 Makk. 1 1-
See my :
2: 18" in the Zeitschr. fur die altt. Wissensch., vol. 20 (1900), pp. 239 f., supple-
mented by my Notes on the Aramaic Part of Daniel, p. 254. In my article in the
ZATW, argued from the phrase iv KoiXdinan (ppdaros rdîv fx°'''''°^ dwdpov, in
I
1 : 19. I made out a still stronger case if I had knowTi then, what I
could have
have observed since, that the very same circumlocution occurs in 9:18, where
"he wrote a suppUcating letter, "is expressed by eypa^/ev iirL(TTo\r]u tx*"^"'*'' iKerr)-
pias rdîv.
that he himself translated at least a part of it into Greek,

we have gained important standing ground. First of all,
the question of the source used by him in the earlier part
of the book of Acts takes on a new interest. The evidence
of his handiwork is practically the same as in the first two
chapters of the Gospel ;the Greek is distinctly translation-
Greek, and it contains a convincing proportion of Lukan
words and turns of speech. Here, again, the appearance
' '
is not that of a Greek text worked over by the evangelist ;
there is only one plausible explanation, namely, that he
himself was the author of the translation. The document
which he translated appears to have belonged to that earliest
stratum of Palestinian Christian literature which was written
and circulated in the Aramaic tongue, and had for its subject
the life and teachings of Jesus and the beginnings of the
Christian church. It is just such a document as we should
have expected Luke to find and use.
The problems of translation connected with Luke's use
of his two main sources, Q and Mark, are much more com-
plex; this is not the place to attempt to examine them
closely. The two minor sources just considered, namely, the
Gospel of the Infancy and the story of the first work of the
Apostles, presumably lay before Luke each in a single
recension ; at all events, we have no evidence that either of
them was current in more than one form. But the case of
the two major sources was altogether different. Wherever
there was a Christian community, they were read, and recited
from memory, and copied for further distribution. In the
Oriental church, both Semitic and Greek recensions were in
circulation. It was in the nature of the case that the latter
should be more numerous than the former, even in Palestine.
The true centre of gravity of the Christian church was at
first in the towns and villages of Judea and Galilee, but it
remained there only a very short time. The great cities
of the neighboring lands took over the tradition, and Greek
became the language of the Eastern church not only where
it was the vernacular, but also all through Syria and Pales-
tine, from Antioch to Egypt. Jew and Christian went each

his own way, and their separateness from each other was
emphasized. The Christian Aramaic literature which grew

up in the first century soon dwindled. It is a question of
very great interest, in what form or forms Luke found and Q

Mark. After these two all-important documents had been
translated, and were widely current in various Greek recen-
sions, as well as in more than one variety of combination,
it of course that copies in Aramaic, as the orig-
was a matter
inal language, should have been especially treasured, in the
places where they were still in existence. It can hardly
^^
be doubted that both the Aramaic Mark and the Aramaic
Q were still to be had in the first decades of the second cen-
tury, though it may well be doubted whether they were to
be found in many places. An evangelist who really took
his task seriously, who knew that there were many accounts
of Jesus and wished to compile the best possible one, who
thought it worth his while to look for the most authentic
material, could not fail at least to become aware of the exist-
ence of these original documents. Luke was such an evan-
gelist, and was also one who (as we now know) did actually
collect and translate Semitic sources. We should certainly
suppose, a priori, that he would obtain and make use of
both Mark and Q in Aramaic.
Another complicating factor in the problem is the Gospel
of Matthew. The Teachings of Jesus (Q) had already been
combined, by Matthew, with the story of his career given
by Mark. The combination was a most important one, and
could not fail to be extremely popular the evangelist who;
could hope to surpass it would need to be able to convict

its author of misuse of his material, or to bring forward new
and important matter of his own collecting. Luke appears
to have felt able to do both of these things.
The Third Gospel was composed in Greek. In incorpo-
rating the material contained in Mark, Luke of course used
the current Greek version, though giving it some editorial
revision, as was natural. As a basis for such revision he had
first of all (we may presume) a copy of the Gospel in Aramaic,
and in addition to this, material derived from some of the
^^
Not the Aramaic sources of Mark ; we have no evidence of any such sources.
The entire Gospel was originally composed and published in Aramaic. It was very
soon rendered into Greek, and our text is a somewhat "augmented and improved"
revision of the translation.
"many" gospels whose existence he mentions in his prefacc.^^

In making use of the Gospel of Matthew, it is not to be
doubted that he had before him a Greek text very similar
to our own on the other hand, it is a debatable question
;
whether he may not also have had access to this Gospel in a

Semitic form. It is all but universally agreed, at the present
day, that the old tradition asserting that the First Gospel
was composed in 'Hebrew' (presumably meaning Aramaic)
was mistaken. I confess that the evidence seems to me to
support the tradition rather than to disparage it, and I
cannot see the force of the arguments to the contrary which
are commonly advanced. From the first words of the opening
chapter, Bi73Xo? yeveaeox; 'Jijaov Xpiarov, on to the end of
the book it is all translation-Greek. Plummer's Com-
mentary on Matthew (1910), p. viii, has the following "The :
First Gospel is evidently not a translation. Who- . . .
ever wrote it took not only the substance of the Second Gos-
pel, but the Greek phraseology of it, showing clearly that he
worked in Greek. It is incredible that he translated the
Greek of Mark into Hebrew, and that then some one trans-
lated Matthew's Hebrew back into Greek that is almost the
same as Mark's." This is further 'illustrated' by the case
of certain passages which were rendered from English into
French, and then (by another translator) back into very
different English. But such argument as this hardly needs
answer. The fact that Mark's phraseology is adopted
means, of course, that the author (whether translator or
not) of the Greek Matthew either knew the Greek Mark
by heart or else had it open before him when he wrote.
The ancient translators always worked in that way, using
older versions whenever they could. We
have abundant
both in the versions of the Old Testament and
illustration,
elsewhere. In modern times, moreover, the same thing
is likely to be true. In 1894, for example, Mrs. A. S.
Lewis published A Translation of the Four Gospels from
the Syriac of the Sinaitic Palimpsest. The first glance
suflBced to show to the reader that this translation used
everywhere the words of the English version of 1611, and
*^
We have no reason to suppose, however, that these minor sources contributed
anything of importance to his criticism of Mark.
closer examination showed that the language of this 'Au-

thorized Version' was retained even in a multitude of
cases where it did not quite agree with the Syriac which
^^
it professed to render. The translator was attached to
the wording of the standard version, and so also were the
most of those who were likely to use her translation. It is
for a precisely similar reason that the citations from the
Old Testament in our Synoptic Gospels are given quite
frequently in the wording of the Septuagint, a fact which has
been generally regarded as evidence that Greek was the
original language of the Gospels. The translator of the Gospel
wished to confirm its readers in the faith, not to stagger
them. Their Bible was the Greek Old Testament, not the
Hebrew, and for them all and for all purposes the Greek form
of words was the right one. All these passages had been
translated, centuries before, by inspired men, who had faith-
fully followed the original. In Semitic gospels, written for
those who used the Hebrew Old Testament, the words of the
citations ought to correspond to the current Hebrew text;
but not so in gospels intended for the great Hellenistic world.
" "
Schmiedel, in his article Gospels in the Encyclopaedia
Biblica, § 130, argues against a Semitic original for Matthew
on the ground of certain passages "which would not have
been available had the Hebrew original been followed."
Only the mistranslation 'virgin,' he asserts, made it possible
to adduce Is. vii. 14 in Matt. i. 22 f. But this is an amazing
assertion. Taking the passage in Isaiah just as it is rendered
in any modern critical commentary, it would still be pre-
cisely the sort of passage that Matthew desired, much more
striking and more convincing than the most of the other
quotations which he uses for the same purpose. What is
more, the birth of Jesus as narrated in the Gospel of Matthew
in its original form was not a virgin birth at all (on this point
see further below). Schmiedel then argues from the quo-
tation of Is. xl. 3 in Matt. iii. 3, saying that it could have been
made only by one who connected the words 'in the wilder-
ness' with the preceding rather than with the following
words, whereas "in Isaiah the crier is of course not in the
^®
As is well known, Mrs. Lewis's translation has since then been very carefully
revised by her.
wilderness." But this argument shatters on the fact that

Matthew and his contemporaries could not foresee the dis-
coveries of our modern commentators the Jewish tradition ;
has always connected "ISIDD only with the preceding words,

and for all the native interpreters the voice was one crying
in the icilderness}^ The two remaining passages mentioned
by Schmiedel, Matt. xxi. 9 and xxi. 16, make no difficulty
whatever. In Ps. viii. 3, alvo<i was a very natural Jewish
interpretation of 13? cf the Targum, Greek, and Syriac ren-
; .
derings of the same word in Ps. Ixviii. 35. On the 'Hosanna'

passage see Wellhausen's Marcus, p. 93. Neither the dative
T(p vis AaveiS nor the iv roU
vyJriaroL'i is difficult of explana-
tion. Schmiedel himself remarks (ibid.) that the Gospel of
Matthew is the one in which the citations from the Old
Testament most often follow the Hebrew rather than the
Greek, and that its author "could not have given such
quotations as, for example, ii. 15, '2S, viii. 17, xxvii. 9 f.
after the LXX Highly significant admissions

at all." !
More than all this, the framework, connecting fabric, and

merely embellishing matter of the book as we have it (and
not merely the underlying sources) give plain evidence of
translation. A typical case of the sort is found in xxviii. 1,
parallel Mark xvi. 1 f. and Luke xxi v. 1. Several
to
scholars have pointed out the fact that the monstrous
' '
Greek in Matthew, oyfrk Be cra^/Sdrcov, Trj eirKûxjuovari et? fxiav
aa^^ciTcov, is merely one of the painfully close translations
with which we are familiar. The original was i<nD^ "'pISi^D
K3^n in ^^33, that is, 'after the Sabbath, in the night intro-
^^
ducing the first day of the week.' The evidence of trans-
lation is perfect, for the Aramaic phrases are the ones
regularly used, the Greek rendering fits them exactly, and
no Greek author could ever have devised such a form of
words. Now these phrases in the Aramaic of the First
Gospel are a part of the evangelist's own expansion of the
^^
In my own opinion, this traditional reading is the correct one.
^^
The evidence has been most fully and convincingly by Professor
set forth
iiloore, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 26. 323-329 (1905).
Moore also refers to Geiger, and points out the fact that Jerome was the first to
suspect imperfect translation in this passage. See also the reference to Professor
Kennett in Wright's Synopsis of the Gospels in Greek, 3d ed., p. 171.
Mark narrative — as he constantly expands it and em-

broiders upon it. This would be by far the most plausible
theory on general grounds compare also the XevKov 6)9 x'^^^
;
of xxviii. 3 with XevKa o)? rb <â)9 and w? 6 t]Xio^ in xvii. 2 (also

embellishments by Matthew). It is very probable that
another mistranslation is to be found in close proximity to
the one just considered. In xxvii. 62 the narrator tells how
on the day —
or, perhaps better, on the evening
—
preceding
the resurrection, the priests and Pharisees came to Pilate
to urge him to secure the tomb and set a watch. The
Greek has :
ry 8e iiravpiov, rjTL<; iarlv fiera rrjv rrapaaKevr^v,
and commentators exclaim over this "singular expression."
Some have queried whether it may not have been a circum-
' '
locution adopted in order to avoid using the word Sabbath ;
but as Plummer (Comm., p. 408) observes, ry 8e eTravpiov,

'on the morrow,' would be quite sufficient in itself. It may
be conjectured that the original had : *inn IffDI S^V7l
xriDlT^, which should have been rendered : Now on the
'
morrow, after sunset, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered

together,' etc. The narrator represented this as occurring ?iot
on the Sabbath day, but just after its close. The rendering
in our Greek Matthew is the only natural one, however,
for (judging from what little we know of the history of the
word) the use of XriDI"!!? in its original signification, 'sunset,'
must have been very nearly obsolete at this time. This
passage, also, belongs to one of Matthew's own additions.
A very frequently occurring indication of translation, found
in all parts of the Gospel, is the word rore used to continue
a narrative. It could only be the rendering of the similarly
used Aramaic (''li^. Because of the evidence of this nature,
the amount of which could be multiplied, it seems to me that
the old tradition, that the whole Gospel of Matthew was
originally composed in Aramaic, still easily holds the field.
Nevertheless, I do not believe that we need to take into
account the possibility that Luke made use of the Aramaic
Matthew. It seems plain that the Greek Matthew influ-
enced him ; but it is hardly less evident that he regarded
that Gospel as of secondary importance, not by any means
to be used as a source in making his own compilation. I
think we may see plainly some reasons v.^hy Luke would
have leaving Matthew at one side

felt justified in as he —
certainly seems to have done.
First of all, he had in his own hands Matthew's two main
sources, Mark and Q, and could see that his predecessor had
dealt with both of them arbitrarily and not always wisely.
Matthew's aim had been only that of an evangelist Luke's ;
was also that of a historian, as he says in his prologue.

Mark's Life of Jesus had provided the chronological order
of all themain events Matthew had greatly changed this
;
order, while using Mark's own material and simply trans-

posing it
—
an unwarranted proceeding, from Luke's point
of view. In his use of the Teachings, also, Matthew had
dismembered and redistributed according to his own pref-
erence. In assigning the discourses to certain definite occa-
sions he had not always achieved good results, and his new
combinations of Sayings were sometimes not convincing.
Moreover, in using both Mark and Q, Matthew had ex-
panded and embellished very extensively, not merely chang-
ing the wording of the narrative, but also adding details and
incidents in abundance. On the other hand, many incidents
and and even whole scenes, recorded by Mark, were
details,
entirely omitted by Matthew. This embellishment was a
purely literary proceeding, which was not only allowable
according to the ideas of the time, but could have been taken
for granted. Luke himself of course felt free to deal with
^^
his sources in this way but here, obviously, was another
;
reason why he could give little weight to Matthew's Gospel

as a source for his owfi.
" The fact that Luke conceived his task as that of a 'historian' does not at all
imply that his aims and methods were like those of a modern writer of history. For
a brief discussion of this subject with some illustration from Jewish literature I may
refer to my Ezra Studies, pp. 145-1.50. So far as we are able to judtje, the most
serious biographers and chroniclers generally felt free to select what material they
preferred, omitting whatever they did not care to use, and saw no objection to
increasing the interest, or the parenetic value, of the work by adding any amount of
lively or instructive detail. Their aim was like that of the modern painter: fo
give a true picture in its impression as a whole, faithfulness in minutitS being a
matter of comparatively small importance. All this is true of every one of our four
Gospels. Wellhausen, Einleitung, id ed., p. 77, writes: "Markus wollte ohne
Zweifel die ganze Tradition aufzeichnen, mit den Erziihlungen iiber Jesus zugleich
auch seine Worte. Dass er was ihm da von zuganglich war nicht vollstiindig auf-
nahm, dass er was schon friiher gebucht war ausliess, kann unmogUch angenommen
warden." I confess that I am unable to feel so sure of this.
Again, the fact is patent that the author of the Third

Gospel, so far as the material
—
or the fashion of it is his —
own, occupies a theological point of view which is more
advanced than that of the author of the First Gospel.
There had been development in both doctrine and usage of
the church new conceptions made their way to the front,
;
and what had been tentative hypothesis now became recog-

nized dogma. This fact is illustrated in numerous places
^''
where Luke has revised the material already used by Mark

or Matthew, as many commentators have remarked. One
very important illustration, however, has not received the
attention which it deserves namely, the doctrine of the vir-
;
gin birth. According to the original text of Matthew, both

in Aramaic and in Greek, the birth of Jesus was not birth
from a virgin. The Lewis (also called the Sinaitic) Syriac
version has preserved the original readings in Matt. i. 16-25,
^^
as any careful study of the evidence shows with certainty.
("Jacob begat Joseph; Joseph hegat Jesus," vs. 16.
. . .
"She shall bear to thee a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus," vs. 21. Joseph, awaking from the vision (on the
night of his marriage), "took his wife, and she bore to him
a son, and he called his name Jesus," vs. 24, 25.) The con-
ception of the child is clearly and consistently represented
as supernatural, the Holy Spirit having anticipated Joseph,
yet the latter is quite as truly the father, the two elements i
cooperating. The child had thus three parents. At the

time when Matthew wrote, the doctrine of the supernatural
birth of Jesus had already taken a firm hold among his fol-
lowers. The theory of the mystery embodied in the First
Gospel (in its original form) is a very natural one, not a
whit more difficult to faith than the later theory of the virgin
birth, and incomparably better suited to the Jeivish doctrine
of the Messiah. The genealogical table given in Matt. i. 2-16
really had great significance, before the text of the chapter
had been tampered with. But at the time when the Third
^^
This does not by any means imply a considerable lapse of time. Develop-
ment of doctrine must have been extremely rapid in just that period. A score of
years would more than suffice for all the difference in this regard between Matthew
and Luke.
^^
And this version is a faithful translation of a Greek text.
Gospel was written, the doctrine of the virgin birth wr.s

taking possession of the church, and had already been given
literary embodiment in the magnificent composition which
Luke adopted and translated. It was irreconcilable with
the account given by Matthew, and this fact of itself would
be a sufficient reason why Luke would wish to leave the First
Gospel at one side, not making his own to rest upon it.'^
This intention also appears in the remarkable genealogical
table of Joseph which he himself gives (certainly his own
composition) in iii. 23-38. I do not believe that this table
would ever have been made, but for the corresponding one in
Matthew. All those who had used Matthew's Gospel must
have been impressed with the table, for it was a conspicuous
thing. Luke makes it more complete, carrying it all the
way from Joseph to Adam, and at the same time makes it
completely harmless, removing it to some distance from the
story of the Nativity and introducing it with the significant
&)? ivo/jLiêro. We may regard it as quite probable, then,
that Luke did not make use of the Aramaic Matthew.
His use of the Gospel even in its Greek form appears to have
been hardly more than occasional and incidental. He had
Matthew's sources, which suited his purpose much better.
In a considerable number of passages found in the sec-
tions derived by Luke from Mark or Q, there is evidence of
variant translation from the Aramaic original. This gen-
erally does not mean mistranslation, but it frequently means
a rendering so awkward as to arouse a suspicion which can
be confirmed by comparing the parallel passage or passages
and reconstructing the wording of the original text. It would
be a rare thing for one of these translators to misunderstand
the Aramaic which lay before him but on the other hand,
;
his 'school-boy rendering' might easily be such as to twist

the Greek tongue out of all shape, or even to obscure the
sense effectually. It might in very rare cases be possible
even to find satisfactory evidence of variation in the Aramaic
^ For a like reason, those who handed down the Greek text of the Gospels found
themselves compelled to make harmonistic changes in Matt. i. 16-25 The his-
tory of these changes can be traced with perfect clearness in the Old Latin version,
certain Greek cursives of the Ferrar group, the Curetonian Syriac, the Peshitto,
and our 'standard' Greek text.
texts which were rendered by successive translators, but the

evidence justifying such a conclusion would have to be very
strong and unequivocal indeed. In the New Testament
as in the Old, the Greek phrase which seems clearly to be
derived from a new Semitic original is in nine cases out of
ten really a rendering of the text already known.
The principal fact which must all the time be kept in sight,
in attempting to go behind the traditional reading to its
Semitic source, is the varied process of change to which these
Greek texts have been subject, ever since they were first
written down. The translator himself generally ^^ stuck
very close to his original. Yet the same man incorporating
a similar translation might feel free to alter it arbitrarily
to some extent. Luke rendered the Hebrew Gospel of the
Nativity with the most minute faithfulness, as a close
study of it shows,^^ and he doubtless would always have
translated faithfully but Luke the compiler, taking over
;
such a translation from another, would have been quite

likely to give it some editorial revision, especially if there
were other translations or parallel texts which he could
compare. In general, translation-Greek loses some of its
roughness and barbarity in passing through editorial hands,
and some illustration of this fact can be seen in our Gospel
texts. Wellhausen's Einleitung, 2d ed., p. 49, says in re-
gard to the sections taken over from Mark by Matthew and
Luke: "Namentlich bei Matthaus unterscheiden sich diese
durch ihre glattere Sprache einigermassen von den nicht aus
Markus stammenden Lehrstiicken," That is, the translator
of Matthew's Gospel not only emploj-ed the Greek transla-
tion of Mark, in all the sections derived from that Gospel,
but also slightly improved the diction and style of the Greek.
It was altogether natural that he should do both of these
^^
You must know your translator before you can draw any
But not always.
safe conclusion where the variation from the original is not very great. And it
often happens, in the Old Testament versions, that the interpreter who has been
reproducing his original word by word in the most slavish fashion, suddenly, and
for no apparent reason, gives us a paraphrase, or inserts interpretative words, or
condenses slightly.
^*
Of course the reason for the appearance of an especially close translation in the
first two chapters of Luke, and for the unusually imcouth Greek, is to be found
in the large amount of poetry which the document contains.
things. Ill pp. 49-57 Wcllhausen describes the material

changes made by Matthew and Luke in the tradition derived
from Mark. His characterization will be recognized as a
true one, although in single instances the observed change
may be due to other editorial hands or to the influence of
other documents, Semitic or Greek, of which we now have
no knowledge. In Luke's Gospel, it is certainly the case
that at least considerable portions of the new material are
translations from Semitic originals. Through how many
hands they may have passed, we do not know. Where
the form of words is plainly Luke's own, it may be the case
either that he himself is translating, or that he is revising a
rendering made by some one else. If in any instance it
happens that the marks of his own hand are abundant while
at the same time the rendering is so close as to be noticeably
awkward, the presumption strongly favors the conclusion
that he himself was the translator. Where the material
is not peculiar to Luke
among the synoptists, a good many
have to be taken into account. Such
different possibilities
a document as Q, containing mainly the Sayings of Jesus,
must have been a great favorite, and we should take for
granted a number of recensions, both in Aramaic and in
Greek. From the popular character of the compilation,
and the freedom with which it would therefore be handled
in transmission, we could be certain that the texts in circu-
lation would differ from one another very considerably.
How would such a writer as Luke proceed, in making his
selection and compilation ? Of course judgments as to
authenticity and relative attestation were ordinarily far
beyond his power. He and his contemporaries had no longer
the means of deciding such questions. The Greek Mark,
both separate and as incorporated by the Greek translator
of Matthew, had already the authority of a standard docu-
ment among those for whom Luke wrote, so his extensive
use of it was a matter of course. In the case of the source
Q, on the other hand, it is plain that there was no standard
recension. In editing the greater part of the material for
Luke was left to his own criteria, the nature
his Gospel, then,
of which we can imagine in part. Semitic documents wôuld
be valued higher than Greek. In the case of various Greek
recensions, translation-Greekwould be given the preference,

other things being equal. Such forms of the narrative or
discourse as agreed best with the picture of Jesus and his
disciples which the evangelist had formed would of course
be chosen. The story of the nativity and childhood of
Jesus given by Matthew, for example, could not be given
any consideration in the face of the Hebrew narrative of
the virgin birth, which must have seemed to Luke to be
the only true account. We should suppose, also, that the
wish to preserve noteworthy variations in the tradition
would have had its influence with the evangelist. On such
and such an occasion Jesus had used a certain form of words
which as handed down in the Semitic original might be under-
stood, and had been understood, in more than one
in fact
way. Matthew Mark, or both, had already incorporated
or
one interpretation would it not be well to preserve the
;
other, only for the sake of caution ^ It is possible that

if
this consideration was the source of some readings or —

translations —
in the Third Gospel. It seems plain that
Luke took it for granted that Mark and Matthew would
continue in circulation side by side with his own Gospel. If
he had not believed this, he would certainly not have omitted
so much of Mark's material. He criticised what lay before
him, to the best of his ability, aiming to cancel variant ac-
counts of the same occurrence, to omit disturbing elements,
to improve the arrangement of the matter, and to revise and
expand where such revision seemed to be needed. Then,
with the addition of all the new material which he had col-
lected, he built up a Gospel which must have seemed to him
far superior to the others. But it is beyond all question
that he would have proceeded very differently if he had
wished or expected to supplant Mark and Matthew. ^^
-^
Luke probably had reason to believe, for instance, that the parables in Matt,
xxiv. 43-xxv. 46 were secondary, namely a purely literary expansion, not a genuine
record of Jesus' own words. He had no need to be anxious about the matter,
however, since the discourses in question had already been given a permanent place
in the Gospel of his predecessor. But we may be pretty sure that if he had found
similar matter of equallj' doubtful authenticity, clothed in a Semitic dress and other-
wise harmonious with his own idea of the character of the Messiah, which had not
been given a place in one of the standard collections, he would have felt it to be his
duty to incorporate it in his own work.
In the sections where Mark is used, or where portions of

Q already adopted by Matthew are
incorporated, and it is
therefore possible to mark off clearly
the portions of the text
which belong only to the Third Gospel, it is not always easy
to decide what part, if any, of the new matter is the property
of the evangelist himself. The question of translation must
also frequently be taken into account, for not a few of the
passages which have only the significance of introductory
formulae or slight expansions, and might therefore most
naturally be regarded as additions freely made by Luke
himself, are such glaring specimens of translation-Greek as
to give us pause. To take at random the first instance
which presents itself In Luke v. 17 ff
: . the story of the
paralytic is introduced in these words : /cat iyeveTo iv fxia
Tcov rjixepSiv Kol avT6<; rjv SiSdaKoov, koI rjaav KaOi'jîevoL âpiaaloi
Kol vofioSiSdaKaXot ot rjaav iXrjXvdore'i eK 7rdcn]<i /cw/i?;9 r^9 TaXi-
\aia<i Kol 'TouSata? /cat '\epovaa\rjix' koI 8vvafit<i \\vpiov -qv et? to
Idadai auTov. koL tSov dvhpe<i (êpovre<i eirl K\ivr]<i dvOpcoirov 09 rjV
7rapa\e\v/xevo<i, Kal i^tjrovv avrov elaeveyKelv kol delvai avrou iv(o-
TTiov avTov. Kal fJLrj evpovra Troiaf elcrevejfccoatv avrov, k.t.X.
Nearly every word of this is peculiar to the Third Gospel ;
moreover, there are here a few phrases and constructions

which at once remind us of Luke. The Semitic idioms are
evident enough, still, it is conceivable that idioms of this
nature, such as /cat Ihov and evwinov avrov, should have been
adopted by a Greek author in his own editorial additions
to narrative already rendered into the translator's jargon.
But to this must be added at once that the Semitisms are
too numerous, and in many passages too awkward, to make
the explanation a plausible one. They are merely obtru-
sive, not at all necessary. Employed as they are, there is
no point of view from which they can be called a credit to
the author of the Third Gospel, if he originated them, and
they might easily arouse the suspicion that he wished to
make his own additions appear to come from Semitic docu-
ments. It is not simply in the padding and patching of
the Gospel that they appear in Luke's handwriting, as it
were they are equally noticeable in the large blocks of
;
narrative which he has taken over from sources unknown

to us. Thus at the beginning of chapter 19 Kal elaeXdcov :
Bii]p^€TO TTjv 'Ie/c»ei%&>.

Kal ISoii avrjp ovofiari KaXov/jLevo^
Za/c^âio?,
Kal avTO^ rjV apîTeXcovr]'? Kal avTO<; 7r\ov(Tio<i. Kal i^rjrei ISecv rov
'lijaovv Tt9 iariv, Kal ovk r)hvvaro airo rov 6)(Xov on ttj rjXLKia fiLK-
/909 rjv.
Kal TrpoSpafJicov et? to efXTrpoaOev ave^rj eirl avKOfJLopeav
Xva iSt] avTov, on eVett'T/? -rjfjbeWev Here is the same
Stepêadai.
writer again compare, e.g.,
; the iKeivr^^ (68ov) with the
TTota? of V, 19. There is also the same heaping of Semitic
idioms, and this time, at least, it ought to be evident that
Luke is not responsible for them. Such gratuitous mon-
strosities as the repetition of Kal avT6<^ and the use of airo before
rov oxôv, for instance, would be either intolerable mockery
or something worse, coming from a writer of known skill
and taste. Luke is translating; there is no other theory
equally plausible. He has done throughout his whole Gospel
what we found him doing in the first two chapters. It was
his purpose to base all his work on "authentic" original
documents. He searched out the native {i.e. Semitic) ma-
^^
terial, and translated the greater part of it himself. In
his renderings of the new material he seems usually to have
followed the original quite closely, though he may have used
to some extent translations made by others who are unknown
to us.
His mode of procedure in dealing with the material al-
ready incorporated by Matthew is well illustrated in the
Lord's Prayer, xi. 2-4 (Matt. vi. 9-13). Matthew had given
this in what was plainly an expanded form. Luke's Aramaic
text had the older form, something like the following :
K;b nn Knnn s:)pnS
T T - T
In rendering this, Luke retained almost everywhere the words

of the Greek Matthew :
^®
Especially after the work of Mark and Matthew, only Semitic documents could
claim to embody the old tradition. Of course all the educated knew perfectly
well that the Greek of those two Gospels was translation-Greek.
310 TRANSLATIONS AIADE FROM ARAMAIC GOSPELS
TlaTep, aytacrO'qTco to ovo/Jid aov

iXOdrco 7] /SaaiXeLU aov •
TOP dprov r)ixoiv \tov iinovaLov^ BiSov rjixlv to Kad^ ri/xepav •
Kal d(ê<i qixlv TU'i d/JiapTia<; 7)fio)v,

Koi yap avTol dcfyiOfMev ttuvtI ocêiXovTi rjpXv
KoX fXT] elaeveyKT)^ rjixd^ el<i ireLpaa/xov.
A part of the wording is Luke's own, however, and that, too,

in places where alteration was not necessary. (This, of
itself, would be fairly good evidence of translation, for the
evangelist would hardly have substituted his own words for

traditional ones, needlessly, in such an important formula
as this.) Plummer remarks, in his Commentary, that the
Kal avToi and the iravTi are both characteristic of Luke.
'A/jiapTLa<i (for oêiXrjixaTo) may well be his own improve-
ment, though possible that his Aramaic text had Ni^StiH,
it is
or some other synonym. The to kuO' rj/jLepav also belongs

to Luke ;
see Plummer. This time, however, the variation
is a much more important one, for the phrase is obviously
a rendering of the same Aramaic word which in Matthew

is translated by top iinovaLov. I cannot believe for a
moment that tov eTrtovaiov originally stood in the Greek
text of Luke on the contrary, it was inserted there from
;
Matthew's Gospel. What Luke had before him, and ren-

dered, was simply 'Give us our bread day by day.' I have
:
conjectured the original as XT'in, 'continual.' This seems

all the more plausible because of the passage 2 Kings xxv.
29 f. as rendered in the Targum ^^^!2^p S"mn SDHS SdxI:
^'2hr2 Dip prh xnn^n^ j^Tin nnû? nnn^cn Mrn ^^r Sd

^"^r^ ^?:r bs nX:rn ar D:n£, 'And he (Jehoiachin) ate bread
before him continually^ all the days of his life. And as for
his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by
the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.' 'Etti-
ova-io^ (as an adjective derived from einevai) would be a
not unskilful way of rendering this X"l''nn, the proper
meaning of which is 'recurring,'' 'returning in constant suc-
cession,' and the like. Such words as evheXex^'^ and BLaTravTof
would not do as well, for the translator did not wish to
make the petition call for 'perpetual' bread, but only for
bread given at constant intervals, i.e. day after day. If the
Aramaic adjective had been X^ttJ^, as in the Old Syriac, the

translator would have rendered by some other and more
familiar Greek word, for he would have been allowed a
rather wide choice the word XT'in kept him within
;
narrow limits. The meaning is, then, 'Give us the bread

for our constantly {i.e. daily) recurring need.' The transla-
tion in Matthew, 'Give us our ever-returning bread,' is a very
' '
close one Luke's Give us our daily bread is a little more
;
free, but a better rendering nevertheless. His text originally

had simply this rbv aprov rjficov BlSov i^jxIv to /ca0' rjixepav, but
:
no harmonizer of the Greek Gospels could permit the un-

usual and interesting tov eirLovaiov to be left out in this way !
If the word *intt stood here in the Gospel of the Hebrews,

we then have excellent evidence that that Gospel was trans-
lated from the Greek. *in^ could not possibly have stood
in the original, but would have been a most natural transla-
tion of iTTioixno^, making immediate connection with the
phrase iinovaa (r]fi€pa). As for Matthew's arjfxepov, it was
•^
doubtless present in the Aramaic text of the First Gospel,

but was a part of the expansion which the whole prayer
has received there.
Added to all the uncertainty of translation, redaction,
occasional correction and conflation, and the like, is that
which is due to careless transmission of the text by copyists.
Our tradition has not been infallible, and even readings
which are fully attested may be wrong. I have no more
doubt, for instance, that in Mark xii. 4 eKeâXioiaav should
be €Ko\a(f)L(Tav ^^ than I have that in 1 Mace. v. 25 cnrrjVTrâav
should be rjcnrdaavTo (cf. vii. 29, 33 Exod. xviii. 7 Judg.
; ;
xviii. 15), or that in 1 Mace. xi. 23 eKeXevaev should be Kare-
Xvaev, or that KaOapwv in Judith x. 5 should be KpiOivcov (cf.

Judg. vii. 13; 2 Kings iv. 42, etc.), though in all of these
cases the manuscript attestation is complete, and we no

longer have the original to compare. In John viii. 25,
instead of the impossible rrjv ap')(r)v on koI XaXco vfilv; the
original reading must have been rrjv ap^^jv eVi /cat XaXo) vfilv,
"I am still only in the very beginning of what I have to
^ The was probably the

first step in the corruption careless writing eKoâKiaav,
whence the rest followed naturally.
say to you," a reading which both suits the sense of the

whole passage and also resembles the language used in
other parts of the Fourth Gospel, In Hebrews xi. 37 we
have a conflate text — though here, again, the manuscript
support unimpeachable.
is The word
iireipdadTjaav, which
is quite out of place here (miserably weak, coming between
"sawn asunder" and "slain with the sword" !), is merely
an old variant reading of iirpLaOrjaav (written eTrpeiadrja-av) .
It is not likely, indeed, that there are many instances of this

sort in our Gospels still, whoever wishes to argue from
;
variant Greek readings to diverse translations must always

bear in mind the possibility of a faultj^ traditional text.^*
Generally speaking, there is no kind of textual criticism so
precarious as argument from translation, even where the
text cannot be doubted. The varying forms of the same
tradition are usually due to free reproduction in which the
important thing was felt to be the substance of the nar-
rative or discourse, not the form of words. The character
of these variants has been admirably summarized by Well-
hausen in his Einleitung, 2d ed., p. 3.
I give in the following a few more specimens of passages,

taken chiefly from the Third Gospel, in which the hypothesis
of awkward or faulty translation seems to be the best way of
explaining our Greek text.
Luke xi. 39-41 (Matt, xxiii. 25 f.). —
The passage in which
the Pharisees are said to "cleanse the outside of the cup
and platter." As is well known, Wellhausen has proposed
to explain the difference here between Matthew and Luke
by supposing that the former rendered ''?1, 'cleanse,'
while the latter rendered "*?[, 'give alms' (Das Evangelium
Lucae, p. 61). Aside from the improbability of such a use
of 'Sf in the time of the evangelists, it seems to me that there
is an easier way of accounting for the variation. As for the
Aramaic usage supposed by Wellhausen In Jewish litera- :
ture the noun 1D|, xmDj means 'righteousness, purity,'

' '
and the like no example of its use to mean almsgiving
;
^®
Resch, in his Logia Jesu, 21, 26, made Mark's iK€<f)a\lw<rav a variant rendering
of ij-n.
or 'alms' has ever been found, so far as I am aware. The

verb ^2]
means 'make pure, regard as righteous,' and the
Hke; never 'give alms.' The word for 'righteousness'
which also means 'alms' is XpliC; the only evidence that
13 f was ever used in a similar way is the fact that in the
Koran and subsequent Mohammedan literature and usage
the word zakdt (pretty certainly borrowed from the Jews)
is the technical term for the alms prescribed by law, whence
it is reasonable to conclude that there was some such Jewish
usage in Arabia in the time of Mohammed. As Siegmund

Fraenkel expresses it, in his De Vocabulis in antiquis Arabum
"
Carminibus et in Corano peregrinis, 23 niDf quidem
p. :
in scriptis ludaicis 'meriti' tantum sensu invenitur, . . .
sed fortasse ludaei Arabici mD| sensu eleemosynarum adhi-

buerunt." A student of Mohammedan literature would at
once think of 'almsgiving' when he saw the verb ''3|, but
it is unlikely, to say the least, that it could have suggested
such an idea to Luke.

The verbal form of the tradition in the one Gospel differs
so much from its form in the other that it is better not to
try to make them fit each other closely. It is not necessary
to suppose that the verb in the first clause of Luke xi. 41
meant 'cleanse.' On the contrary, verse 41 is the counter-
part of verse 39 there, the first clause referred to cleansing
;
and the second to unrighteousness here, the two ideas are

;
repeated in reverse order. There, he had said: "Your

inner part is full of unrighteousness"; here, "That which is
within 7nake righteous," Xp'^^ ll^V 'i^hl S^"^. Nothing could
be more natural than to render this by ret evovra Sore iXerjfjLo-
since X|*512i 113^ is the regular idiom for "give alms,"
avvrjv,
the very one which is used in Matt. vi. 1-4 {SLKacoavvrjv
TToieiv), for instance, and of which a host of examples could
be given. ^^
xi. 47 ff. (Matt, xxiii. 29-33). —
The Greek text has:
*^ oval
vfilv, OTL olKohofielre ra fivrj/xela tmv Trpo^rjTOiV^ ol he Trarepe^
*°
vfxoiv aireKTeLvav avTov;. apa fiaprvpe^ ecrre /cat avveuooKecre TOL<i
€p<yot.<i T(ov irarepoov vfxQtv on avrol /xev aireKreivav avTOv<;, vfiel'; Se
^'
I may add, as an example of coincident conjecture, that I came upon this
explanation of the passage quite independently of Wellhausen.

oUoBofielre. This last clause contains the proof of the fact
that these Jews were not guiltless of the blood of the proph-
ets "Because they slew them, and 2/e twi'M," But this is no
:
"proof" at all so far as it could have any significance in this

;
connection, it might rather be an indication of a repentant

generation. In Matthew, it is all clear: "Ye say: If we
had been days of our fathers, we should not have been
in the
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Where-

fore ye witness in regard to yourselves that ye are the sons of
them that slew the prophets and ye will fill up the measure
;
of your fathers. Serpents, offspring of serpents,'" etc. The

verses immediately following, in Luke as well as in Matthew,
proceed in the same strain, saying that the children had been
like the fathers all the way from Cain down to the present
generation. The original in Luke at the end of verse 48

was certainly P'"'^ P?? P^'^X 'and ye are children of theirs.'
The translator (Luke himself of course thought of p5?
.'*)
the participle, since he had just had the very same form
in the preceding verse, and 48b seemed to be repeating
the two clauses of 47 in reverse order. The ^^TD, which
thus became the direct object, was of course omitted in
translating, as it was not needed and could not have been
rendered without awkwardness.
xii. 46 (Matt. xxiv. 51). —
"But if that servant shall say
in his heart, My coming and shall begin
lord delayeth his ;
to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat

and drink, and to be drunken the lord of that servant will
;
come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when

he knoweth not, and will cut him in two, and appoint his por-
tion with the unfaithful {koI htxoTOjX'qcrei avrov koI to fiepo'i
avTov fiera r5>v airicnwv Orjaei).^' Two
things strike the reader
at once First, this is a singularly disproportionate punish-
:
ment for a kind of mismanagement to which servants left

to themselves have always and everywhere been especially
prone, and for which dismissal in disgrace is generally re-
garded as an adequate penalty second, after the man had
;
been "split in two" it could make no difference to him

with whom his portion was appointed. I believe that we
may see here a very ancient error in the underlying Ara-
maic text, which is rendered in the same way by both Luke
and Matthew. ALxorofiijcret of course translates the verb

3^25. The original text was: i<'10 D^S nnp .Ta'^S'^l, 'and
^°
will divide him
his portion with the unfaithful.' By a
very natural bit of carelessness (supposing the first suffix
to be direct object rather than indirect) the conjunction 1

was put before Tir\iJ2. This once done could never be un-
done, and the addition of the verb CU?^ at the end of the
^^
clause was immediately necessary X''"lpty D^
nn3tt1 n^JT'S"''!:
'
D"'tr% and will divide him, and his portion with the unfaith-
ful {will appoint).'
xii. 49 f.
— Hvp rjXdov jSakelv et? rrjv yrjv, koI tC OeXw el rjhr)
avrjc^drj ; ^d7rTi(T/xa Be e'X^co âTrrccrdrjvai^ KaX ttw? avve')(piJLaL eft)?
oTov reXeady. 'I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what
will I if it is already kindled? I have a baptism to be bap-
tised with, and how I straitened ambe accomplished till it !
'
I have given the second clause of verse 49 in the words of

the English Revised Version. The rendering is nonsense,
to be sure, but it at least has the merit of following the
text. Many interpreters, including some of the foremost of
the Germans, have rendered according to the sense How :
'
'
I wish that it were already kindled but this, as Plummer !
fairly objects, "does rather serious violence to the Greek."

Turning the Greek back, word by word, into Aramaic, we
have: ni^S"! HD ]f2 I^X X2i^ XDiC Httl. But whoever has
before him
Aramaic, not feeling obliged to render
this
word but rather to give the sense, can only trans-
for word,
late it: 'And how I wish that it were already kindled!'
The idiom is the regular one in Aramaic. We are given
in Luke a too literal rendering
— though any ancient trans-
latorwould have been likely to render in just this way.
—
Kal rjêpa r}V 7rapaa-Kevr]<;, kol (rd^/SaTOV eTrecjxoaKev.
xxiii. 54.
'Now it was the Day of Preparation, and the next day was
the Sabbath.' The same idiom which has already been
mentioned, above, in interpreting Matt, xxviii. 1. Moore, in
the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 26. 328 f.,
^The idiom is perfectly regular ; cf ., for example, the Syr. renderings in Is. liii.
12; Jer. xxxvii. 12, etc.

^^
This word is regularly used to mean both 'faithless' (Luke, d-rrlffTwv) and
'hypocrite' (Matt., viroKpiTCiv).
showed that the original of Luke's phrase was something

Hke XriDU? ^î3 Knnn:?! X)2V mm. I have noticed the very
:
same phrase in the Syriac Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite,

p. 22, line 9 KrO^T ^^:a snD1"i:?n SXSV \mn^K, where Wright
:
translates 'It was the night between Friday and Saturday.'

:
In the evangelist's narrative, the hour is not stated we only ;
know that it was the time when the sixth day was passing
over into the Sabbath. Any Aramaic text would have used
here the word n33, "dawn," but no Greek writer would ever
in this place have written eVe^coo-zcei' unless he were trans-
lating the Semitic word which actually lay before him in a
document. Luke is using either the Aramaic Mark or a nar-
rative based upon it the 6 icrriv Trpoad/Sârov of Mark xv.
;
42 is another very natural, but less accurate, rendering of
xxiv. 32. — Ou%t ^ Kaphia -^/xcov Kaiofievr) Tjv ',

"Did not
our heart hum?" The hypothesis of an original Aramaic
"HlT,
instead of '^p^ has long seemed to me the most satis-
factory interpretation "Was not our mind [37 is the under-
:
standing] slow to comprehend?'''' Wellhausen's ir^ni 1"lX223,

Das Evangelium Lucae, 139, seems to me much too remote
to be compared here. Neither the Hebrew verb nor any
likely Aramaic equivalent of it could possibly have been
rendered by Kaiofiai, and j''X3n"l (the same word in Aramaic
as in Hebrew) would probably have been translated by
aTrXdjxâ, certainly not by KapBia. I do not think, how-
ever, that we have a particle of external evidence of the
original Aramaic reading ^p\ Every one of the readings
of our versions is probably derived, directly or indirectly,
from the variations being due partly to corruption

Kaio/jievr],
of the Greek and partly to guessing what ought to have been
the reading. The corruption and the guesswork are impor-
tant, as showing that the idiom was as unsatisfactory in
Greek as it was in Semitic (witness the Syriac, where not
only the Lewis text, but also the Curetonian and Peshitto,
both of which have been extensively conformed to the stand-
ard Greek, have the reading 'heavy'). It is obvious
enough, in any case, that this whole chapter is translated.

Numerous other indications of translation iji the Third
Gospel which I had noted in my own reading, and which
were included in this essay as originally presented,^^ have

now been pointed out by Wellhausen in his Introduction and
Commentaries, so that I need not include them. One of
these to which attention may especially be called is the
aiTo fxid<;, 'at once,' of xiv. 18. It is a too literal rendering
of Kin |X2, and occurs in a section of the parable (verses 18-
24) which is found only in Luke, and can hardly have been
known to Matthew. In general, the evidence is striking that
where Luke goes his own way he is usually closely follow-
ing written documents, mostly Aramaic.
In Mark xiv. 3, Matt. xxvi. 6, may it not be that 'Simon
' ^^ '
the leper (^?1?) was originally intended to be Simon
the jar-maker'' (^?1^) ? I do not know that the latter
word has been found anywhere still, no object was more
;
familiar in Palestine than the water jar, or wine jar, ^'^^,

and the term used to designate the man who made or sold
such jars can only have been Îf
^ It was read before the Semitic Club of Yale /
University, January 13, 1904 ;
and before the Society of Biblical Literature, in New York City, in December, 1906.
As originally written and presented, it contained all the essential features of its
present form, including all of the suggested emendations excepting the one con-
cerning 'Simon the leper.'
^ The word used, for example, in the Palestinian Syriac version in these
passages.
ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN
Clifford Herschel Moore
Harvard University
As Livy remarks, the provinces of Spain were the first to

be acquired by the Romans on the continent of Europe and
the last to be thoroughly subdued.^ Yet under the republic
the Romanization of these provinces had advanced far,
Carteia in the south was the first Latin colony outside of
-
Italy Gades, the oldest Phoenician settlement in the penin-
;
sula, was the first foreign city to adopt the law and language
of the conquerors, and was so fully Romanized by Augustus's
day that the census showed five hundred knights resident
there, a larger number than was to be found in any provincial
town of Italy except Patavium, according to Strabo.^ Under
Julius Caesar and Augustus many Spanish communities
received full Roman citizenship. These towns, moreover,
were not wholly confined to the coast, but many were sit-
uated in the interior parts of the peninsula, especially in
Bsetica, where Corduba, Hispalis, and Urso were undoubtedly
important centres of Roman culture long before they were
made Roman colonies in the years 46-44 B.C. the mterior ;
of Tarraconensis, however, especially that area now repre-

sented by New Castile and a considerable part of Old Castile,
together with the modern provinces of Salamanca and Ca-
ceres, was not occupied by any town with full Roman rights.
In the valley of the Iberus, Caesaraugusta, the modern Sar-
agossa in the province of the same name, occupied a some-
what advanced position ^ while in Lusitania, Augusta
;
Emerita, now Merida in the province of Badajos, founded

in 25 B.C., exerted a strong influence.^ But the northwestern
quarter of the peninsula long resisted the Roman arms, so
that the conquest was only completed by Agrippa's successes
1 ^ '
xxviii. 12. 12. Livy, xliii. 3. 1-4. iii. p. 169.
*
Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iii. 24 Strabo, iii. p. 151.
;
*
Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iv. 117; Strabo, iii. pp. 151, 166.
319
320 ORIENTAL CULTS IN SPAIN
over the Asturi and Cantabri in 19 Troops, however, b.c.^

were continually stationed Spain throughout the Roman
in
domination, the forces varying from the three legions under
Tiberius ^ to a single legion under Marcus Aurelius ^ and the
five recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum at the beginning of
the fifth
century.^
The process of Romanization had advanced in Strabo's
day to such an extent that a considerable part of the inhab-
itants of Baetica had adopted Roman customs and had for-
gotten their own language so, that they hardly differed from
the Romanstheinselves.^° The Latin poets of Corduba
might offend the ears of Cicero,^^ but two generations after
his day, Spain had begun to contribute that long list of
writers who made the first century of the empire the Spanish
age in Latin literature. The building of roads, the further
establishment of Roman towns, service in the army, the cult
of Rome and the emperors, all continued the spread of Roman
civilization. The elder Pliny in his Natural History ^- re-
cords a total of fifty towns possessing full Roman rights and
forty-eight having the ius Latii, which was extended by Ves-
pasian in 75 A.D. to all free inhabitants who had not pre-
viously obtained it.^^
This early and extensive Romanization of the Spanish
provinces had its effect on the religious history of their
inhabitants. Throughout Bsetica and much of Tarraconensis
no evidence of the worship of the native Iberian or Celtic
divinities appears, although in the remoter districts to the
west and north dedications to these gods are numerous.
Nowhere in the empire was the cult of the capital city and
the imperial house better organized and more assiduously car-
ried on than in Spain, being indeed one of the chief agencies
of Roman influence, as the inscriptions abundantly attest.^*
41; Dio Cass.,

6
Horace, Odes, ii. 6. 2, 11. 1; iii. 8. 21 f. ; iv. 14. liv. 11.
' to 23 a.d.
Tacitus, Annals, iv. 5, referring ; cf. Strabo, iii. p. 166.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 6. 3492 a, b.
^
9
Not. Dig. Occ, vii. p. 138 S. " Strabo, iii. p. 151.
12
11
Pro Archia, 26. iii. 7-30; iv. 117-118.
Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iii. 30

13
Corpus, 2. 1049, 1050.
;
1*
Cf. Ciccotti, I Sacerdoti Municipali e Provinciali della Spagna, etc., Annali
dell' Institute, 38. (1890) pp. 28-77 G. C. Fiske, Notes on the Worship of the Ro-
;
man Emperors in Spain, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 11. (1900) pp.
101-139.
CLIFFORD HERSCHEL MOORE 321
When we examine the evidences for the worship of the

oriental gods in Spain, as I propose to do in this paper, we
again see the condition of the country reflected in the dedi-
cations extant. In spite of the mihtary occupation, the
special gods of the soldiers, like lupiter Optimus IMaximus
Dolichenus, for example, do not appear, and out of the entire
list of those who set up dedications to the several divinities,
only four are soldiers, and of these three were high officials, all
devotees of the Mithraic religion. ^^ Nor can we detect the
course by which these religions entered Spain and were there
spread, as we can, for example, in the case of the taurobolium
at Lyons, where L. vEmilius Carpus declares that he brought
the rite from the shrine near the mons Vaticanus in Rome —
vires excepit et a Vaticano transtulit.^® Again, at Nemau-
sus in Gaul a devotee of I. O. M. Heliopolitanus writes
himself down domo Beryto, having doubtless remained faith-
ful to the divinity of his native land throughout his military
service. In Spain we have nothing of this sort but never- ;
theless we can be sure that the army, traders, and slaves

did their work here as in other parts of the empire.
The question arises at the outset of our investigation
whether the Phoenician and Carthaginian occupation of the
coast left any traces in matters of religion for although the ;
power of Carthage was broken before 206 B.C., her influence

must have continued long, even if its evidences are not so
clearly detected as those left by later invaders. In only
three cases at the most can we say with any degree of cer-
tainty that we are dealing with gods of Carthaginian origin :
these are Hercules (Gaditanus), Dea Cselestis, and lupiter

Ammon. Gades was the most ancient and prosperous colony
of the Tyrians here they established the worship of their
;
great god Melcarth, who was denominated by the Greeks and

Romans Hercules Tyrius (Corpus Inscript. Lat. 7. p. 97 b).^^
His temple at Gades was famous,^^ and the Phoenician coins
of this city bear the head of Melcarth, as that of Hercules is
figured on the coins of the Roman period.^^ No dedication to
" Cf. 16
pp. 333 S. Corpus, 13. 1751.
" On a statue at Rome ante aditum porticus ad nationes, see Pliny, Naturalis
Historia, xxxvi. 39.
1*
Silius Italicus, Pun. iii. 14-20 ; Philostratus, Vita Apollonii, v. 5.
" Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum, 1. pp. 19-22 ; 6. p. 504'.
the god has been found among the few inscriptions of Gades
itself, but he appears as Hercules Gaditanus at Carthago
Nova in one inscription,^" 2. 3409 [H]ercul[i] Gadita[no] :
] |
L. Avi(us) L. l(ibertus) Anti[pho] et A. Avius Ecl[ectus] | |
V. s. 1. m. His cult is also attested by 2. 1929 from Carteia :
Q. Cornelio i [f(ilio)] Gal(eria) Senecioni

. . .
j
Anniano, |
co(n)s(uli), proco(n)s(uli) Ponti et Bit[h]yniae, |

curatori viae
Appiae, legato legionis VII geminae feli[c]is, curatori
| ] |
viae Latinae, pr[a]etori, tribun[o] plebis, quaestori urbano, |
I
sacerdoti Herculis. This inscription must belong to the
first half of the second century, since Cornelius Senecio
was proconsul of Pontus and Bithynia before 136 a.d., the
year in which these districts became an imperial province.
His oflSce as sacerdos Herculis ^^ was in all probability con-
ferred on him by the inhabitants of Carteia while he was serv-
ing as legatus legionis VII, but the exact date of this service
cannot be determined. It is further probable that the same
god appears in the fragmentary inscription from Epora, 2.
2162 . sacerdoti Her(culis)
. . Modia Rusticula mater | |
d(edicavit). Two inscriptions to Hercules Invictus should

also in all probability be reckoned here. Ipsca, 2. 1568 :
Herculi Invicto A. Licinius Glaucus d(e) p(ecunia) s(ua)

| |
m(erito).^^ Tucci, 2. 1660: Herculi Invicto Ti(berius) Augusti

f (ilius) divi nep(os) Caesar Aug[ustus] imp(erator) pontifex
maxumus ded[icavit].^
Of the sixteen remaining inscriptions referring to the wor-
ship of Hercules it is impossible to say how many belong to
the Phoenician divinity. But in all probability a consider-
able number do so.^*
^^
References are to the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum unless otherwise indi-
cated.
That this Hercules is the god of Gades may be safely assumed in view of the
2^
originand history of Carteia. Furthermore, it will be noted that the office of priest
is named at the end of the cursus, showing that it was something extraordinary.
Cf. Hiibner ad loc. No. 1927, an inscribed tile, also bears witness to this cult at
Carteia.
^ The name of the dedicant is reported as Alcinus Glaucus ;
I have adopted
Hiibner's emendation.
^ On this extraordinary dedication by Tiberius, which must fall in the year
14 A.D., see the comments of Hiibner and Mommsen ad. loc.
^ The 726, 727 near ancient Norba in Lusitania ;
complete Hst is as follows :
in the province of Baetica were found 1303, 1304 to Hercules Augustus at the
modem Jerez de la Fontera, 1436 at Ostippo, 2058 in the valley of the river SinguUs ;
The cult of the second Phoenician divinity, Astarte, the

Carthaginian Tanith, Dea Cselestis, is attested at Lucus
Augustus, the modern Lugo in the extreme northwestern
part of Gallsecia, of which it was the chief ancient town, and
at Tarraco, the principal city of Tarraconensis. It is hardly
credible that her worship was not more widely spread than
the extant evidence would seem to indicate. That the cult
of the goddess had a permanent establishment at Tarraco
seems to be indicated by the sepulchral inscription 2. 4310 :
D. M, G. Avidio Primulo sacerdoti Caelestis incompa-

I | |
rabili religionis eius

|
G. Avidius Vitalis patri b. m.
| |
At Lucus Augustus the dedicants were apparently two

brothers, natives of the district or traders who had not at-
tained Roman citizenship, 2. 2570 Caelesti Aug(ustae)
:
| |
Paterni qui et Constantii v(ota) s(olverunt).

| | |
A third Carthaginian divinity may be seen in lupiter

Ammon, to whom also two dedications have been found.
The first comes from the modern Santa Eulalia de Logrosa,
situated near the coast to the west of Lugo, 2. 5640 :
I- O- M-
APSF.
V. S- M-
Although it is impossible to state with certainty that this
isa dedication to lupiter Ammon, it is in all probability such.
There is no question, however, as to the dedication set up
by a brother and sister at Valentia in Tarraco, 2, 3729 :
[I(ovi)] O(ptimo) M(aximo) Am(moni) L. Antonius L(uci)

| |
f(ilius) Gal(eria) Sabinus et Antonia L(uci) f(ilia)

|
Pro- |
cula. It is perhaps idle to inquire whether this divinity is the

Baal Hamman of the Carthaginians or the Greco-Roman
identification of the Egyptian Ammon as a matter of fact,
;
the two divinities were in all probability completely identified

before the beginning of our era. In the cult of these three
gods, therefore, we find traces of the influence of the Phoeni-
cian settlers in the peninsula; the perpetuation of this evi-
from the province of Tarraconensis come 2814, 2815, 2816, found at San Esteban
near the ancient Uxama, 3009 at Ilerda, 3096 at Cabeza del Griego, 3728 at Valenti,
4004 (set up by the sodales Herculani) at Dertosa, 5855 at Alcala de Henares near
the ancient Complutum, 5950 at lUci, and 6309 at Toledo.
dence was easy, since the Phoenician divinities had been

identified with Greek and Roman gods long before the strug-
gle began between the Romans and the Carthaginians for
the possession of Spain.
"We now turn to cults which were brought in by other
agencies than those of the Tyrian merchants. The first
of these was that of Bellona. Here again a diflSculty con-
fronts us, for we cannot determine whether we are dealing
with the Roman divinity or with the Cappadocian goddess
whose worship was made known to the west by Sulla's soldiers
at the time of the First Mithridatic War.^^ I have, there-
fore, given both inscriptions which come from the Conventus
Emeritensis. The first is from Turgalium ; its reading is
uncertain, but the following is approximately correct, 2. 5277 :
Bel[l]onae C. lulius Vit[u]lus ar(am) [posuit].^^ The second

is from the modern Montanchez, Ephemeris Epig. 9. 44,
no. 98: d(eabus) s(acrum).| Bellonae L. P. S.
D(is) .
I posu|it l(ibens) a(nimo).

The popularity of these gods whom we have thus far been
considering was slight in Spain, as elsewhere in the west,
compared with that enjoyed by those greater gods Isis,
Serapis, Magna Mater, Mithras, and the solar divinities.
Let us first consider the Egyptian goddess and her associates.
The centres of Isiac religion were the following :
Lusitania.
Salacia, 2. 33. Isidi dominae ]

M. Octavius Octaviae [
M. f. Marcellae Mode
Theophilus v.s.l.m. |
Ratillae lib. |
Pax lulia, 2. 46. Serapi Pantheo sacrum. In honorem | |
G. Ma|ri Prisciani Stelina Prisca mater filii indulgen-

| | |
tissimi |
d. d.
Baetica.
La Torre del conde de Feria, 2. 981. Isidi dominae |
ex testamento |
Scandillae C. f. Campanae.
Igabrum, 2. 161 L Pietati Aug. Flaminia Pale Isiaca
| |
Igabren(sis). Huic ordo m(unicipum) m(unicipi) Iga-

| |
brensium |
ob merita statuam decr(evit) quae honore
| | |
accepto impens(um) remisit.

25
Plutarch, Sulla, 9.
« 8. 377.
Ephemeris Epig.
Tarraconensis.
Acci, 2. 3386. Isidi puel(lari) iussu dei Ne(tonis?). | |
Fabia L. f. Fabiana avia in honorem Avitae neptis

| piis- |
sumae ex arg, p. CXHS" = £3V, |

item ornamenta : in
basilio unio et margarita
VI, zmaragdi duo, cylindri |
n.
n. VII, gemma carlbunclus, gemma hyacinthus, gemmae
cerauniae duae in auribus zmaragdi duo, margarita duo
|
; ; ]
in collo quadribacium margaritis n. XXXVI, zmaragdis |
n. XVIII, in clusuris duo in tibiis zmaragdi duo, cylindri ; |
n. XI ;
in spataliis zmarag|di n. \T[II, margarita n. VIII ;
in digito minimo anuli |

duo gemmis adamant., digito
sequenti anulus po|lypsephus zmaragdis et margarito,
in digito summo |
anulus com zmaragdo in soleis cylindri ;
n. VIII.
Acci, 2. 3387. Livia Chlcedonica Isidi deae d. h.s.e. [ | ]
ornata ut potuit in collo monile gemmeum in digitis

:
|
H |
; |
zmaragd. XX. dextr. |

. . .
Valentia, 2. 3730 (= 6004). Sodalicium vernarum |
I
colentes Isid(em).
2. 3731. Serapi ] pro salute P. |
Herenni
Sejveri Callinii[c]us ser(vus).
Tarraco, 2. 4080. Isidi Aug. sacrum. In honor(em) |
et memoriam |
C . . . . liae Sabinae Clod. 0[rbi]ana | ]
mater, | Sempronia Lychnis |

avia.
Aquae Calidae, 2. 4491. P. Licinius Phi|letus et Lici-|
nia Crassi Peregrina lib. |
Isidi |
v.s.l.m. loc(o) ac(ce)p(to)
a repub(lica).
Emporia, 2. 6185.
. .
serapid\i aedem
. . .
sedili\a
. . .
|meni f.
. . .
|ius
Asturica Augusta, 2. 5665. . . . Zeu? 1epa7n<; 'law.

Bracara Augusta, 2. 2416. Isidi Aug. sacrum. Lucretia |
Fida sacerd(os) perp(etua) Rom(ae) et Aug(usti) con- | |
ventuus Bracaraug(ustani) d(edicavit).

Panoias, 2. 2395, c. 'T^jriaro) S[a/)a] TrtSt avv . . . kuI
/i,i'o-[T7;]/3ib[i]9. C. Calpurnius Rufinus voti compos.^27
" As corrected in the Archeologo Portugues, 1897, p. 59.
That Pax lulia (46) the epithet Pan-

in the dedication at
theus is
given Serapis not surprising, for the god bore this
is
universal character at the time of his introduction into

Egypt in the third century before our era,^* and the expres-
sion fits the syncretistic reHgious thought of the empire.
Thus we find a close parallel in an African inscription, Corpus,
8. 12493 All 'HXto) fieydXay
: Travdew 'EapdinBt.|
Igabrum in Ba?tica was apparently an important centre

of the worship of Isis according to 1611, in which the title
Isiaca Igabrensis is equivalent to sacerdos publica Igabrensis.
An exact parallel to this is found at Ostia, where the titles Isia-
cus huius loci (Corpus, 14. 352) and sacerdos Isidis Ostiensis
(14. 429, 437) both appear.
It will be observed that the eight places in Tarraconensis
which now offer us evidence of the cult of the Egyptian divin-
ities extend from the southernmost part of the province along
the eastern coast into the northwestern dioceses of Asturia
and Gallaecia. The most interesting of these are the two
dedications from Acci, the colonia lulia Gemella (3386 and
3387), which testify to the wealth and importance of the god-
dess's shrine there. The
extraordinary inventory of gifts
recorded in the sounds
like a list of the votive treasure
first
^^
of some favorite shrine of the Virgin Mary to-day. In fact,
of all the similar records preserved to us from Roman an-
tiquity the only inventory comparable to this is that of the
sacred treasury of Isis and Bubastis near the ancient shrine
of Diana Nemorensis in the Alban Hills,^° the value of which
28 On the introduction of the

god into Egypt see Lehmann-Haupt in Roscher's
Lexikon, 4. 341 S.
2'
The money value of the gifts was very considerable. Onlj' that of the 112 lbs.,
82I oz. can now be reckoned with any degree of accuracy, which at the current price
of silver is equivalent to a little less than $700. Naturally the value of the gems and
settings cannot be determined even approximately.
^^
Corpus, 14. 2215. Res traditae fanis utrisque signa n(umero) xvii, caput
:
solis imagines argenteas iiii, clupeum i, aras aeneas duas, delphicam aeneam,
i,
spondeum i argenteum et patera, basileum ornatum ex gemmis n. i, sistrum argcn-

teum inauratum, spondeum inauratum, patera cum frugibus, collarcm ex gemmis
beryllis, spatalia cum gemmis ii, collarem altcrum cum gemmis n. vii, inaures ex
gemmis n. x, nauplia ii pura, corona analempsiaca i cum gemmis topazos n. xxi
et carbunculos n. Ixxxiiii, cancelli aenei cum hermulis n. vii intro et foras, vestem
liniam tunicam i, pallium i, zonam cum segmentis i, vestem altera
argenteis, stola
lintea pura, tunicam. pallium, stola, zona. Bubasto :vestem siricam puqjuream
et callainam, labellum marmoreum cum columella, hydria hypsiana et Icntea
could hardly have surpassed that of the gifts made by this

single Spanish devotee, Fabia Fabiana, to whose wealth,
affection for her granddaughter, and devotion to the goddess
the inscription bears eloquent witness. The shrine must
have been well established and held in high esteem to be the
recipient of such gifts this is also shown by the fact that the
;
Egyptian cult had been brought into friendly relations with

the local divinity Neto,^^ whom Macrobius describes (Sat. i.
19, 5) Accitani etiam, Hispana gens, simulacrum Martis
:
radiis ornatum maxima religione celebrant, Neton vocantes.

This Spanish god, who to Macrobius and the men of his day
was naturally a solar divinity, radiis ornatum, —
may —
well have been regarded as such in the second century of
our era ^^ with a god of this character Isis could easily be
;
associated. It is worth noting here that at Ostia a decuri-

alis scriba librarius dedicated to Isis regina a signum Martis,^^
the god with whom Neto was identified by the interpretatio
Romana.
The two inscriptions from Valentia (3730, 3731) show dev-
otees of the lowest class. Nos. 4080, 4491, and 6185 call
for no comment. The identification of Zeu? êpain^ in
no. 5665 is also a commonplace.^^ The name 'law requires
some further consideration, is, know, the
for this so far as I
only inscription in which this name is attached to Sarapis.
That 'law was identical with the Jewish Jahwe and was also
the Phoenician name of the Chaldean Dionysus is well
known ^^ likewise familiar is the passage in Macrobius'
;
Saturnalia, i. 18, 19-21, where the learned Vettius Agorius
purpurea cum clavis aureis et zona aurea, tunicas ii praecincta et discincta et

palliolum, vestem altera alba, tunica, stola, zona et pallium.
For a rich collection of Latin texts relating to votive offerings and a discus-
sion thereof, see De Marchi, II Culto Private, 1. pp. 292-307.
^'
Probably the same as the god Netus of Corpus, 2. 365, 5278.
^2
Cf. Apuleius, Metamorphoses, xi. 24, where it is said that the initiate was
dressed ad instar soUs. Furthermore, the identification of Sarapis with Sol was not
uncommon. Cf. Corpus, 8. 12493; Inscriptiones Grsecas, 12. 2, 114; etc. Our
inscription can hardly be earlier than the second century.
^ 7. 1194.
Ephemeris Epigraphica,
^ See Head, Historia Nummorum,
p. 720, for this inscription on coins of Alex-
andria, p. 570 on coins of Tripolis in Phrygia. Cf. also the many dedications to
lupiter Sarapis.
^*
Lydus, de Mensibus, iv. 38 Diodorus Siculus,
; i. 94, 2. Cf Baudissin, Studien
.
zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, 1. 179-254.

Prsetextatus continues his discourse after quoting the Orphic

verse :
eU Zev<: eh 'AiSrj'i eh "HXto9 eh Aiovvao';,
huius versus auctoritas fundatur oraculo ApolHnis Clarii,

in quo aliud quoque nomen soH adicitur, qui in isdem sacris
versibus inter cetera vocatur 'laco. Nam consultus Apollo
Clarius, quis deorum habendus sit, qui vocatur 'law, ita
eflfatus est :
opjia fxev Se8a(ora^

^XPV^ vrjirevOea KevOecv,
el B' TOi iravpr] crvvecn^ koX vov^ aXa7ra8v6<;,
dpa
^pdêo rov Trdvrcov virarov Oeov efifiev 'laai,
HeifMart /xe'v t 'AiSrjv, Aia S"
e'lapo^ dpyoîvoLO,
'HeXioy Se ddpev^^ /jbeTOircopov S' d^pov 'lacu.
huius oraculi vim, numinis nominisque interpretationem, qua

Liber patet et sol 'lady significatur, exsecutus est Cornelius
Labeo in libro, cui titulus est de oraculo
ApolHnis Clarii.
There no occasion here to discuss the use of 'Iac6 in
is
magic and in gnosticism ;^^ for us it is sufficient to observe that

in the fourth century, or rather in the second half of the third,
if Cornelius Labeo is correctly placed there, this oracle was
current in which 'law is presented as rov irdvrwv virarov Oeov,

and that in the pantheistic thought of the day he was
the solar divinity ; as such he might naturally be identified
with Sarapis, who frequently appears as Sol Sarapis, lupiter
Sol, etc.^^ The date of our inscription from Asturica Au-
gusta cannot be determined,^^ but its appearance in this re-
mote district shows how widely oriental syncretism had pen-
etrated throughout the empire. It is true that Asturica was
an important city,^^ capital of the conventus which bore its
name, and as such was doubtless visited by traders from the
Orient. Whether soldiers of eastern origin were quartered
^^
Vid. Baudissin, op. cit.
^'
Corpus, 13. 8246 Soli Serapi ; 3. 3 lovi Soli optimo maximo Sarapidi 14. 47
;
All 'HX/(f> /xeyiXif) âpdwidi; etc. On the passage in Macrobius, vid. Buresch,
Klaros, pp. 48 ff.
Lehmann-Haupt, Roscher's Lexikon, 4. 360, says die Inschrift stammt

38
^viiy :
nach dem Schriftencharakter und nach des Herausgebers Urteil aiis dem dritten
Jahrhundert vor Christus, is beyond my comprehension. Probably this is a misprint
for nach Christus, for in the third century B.C. this part of Spain was a howling
Iberian wilderness and certainly had not heard of Serapis or the mystic 'law.
^'
Pliny, Naturalis Historia, iii. 28.
here cannot be determined from the paucity of our data,

although such were undoubtedly stationed at the neighbor-
ing town of Legio Septima.^"
The inscription from Bracara Augusta (2416) is interesting,
for it records a dedication to Isis by a woman who had been
honored with appointment as sacerdos perpetua of the cult
of Rome and the imperial house by the conventus of which
Bracara Augusta was the centre. If Hiibner was right in
dating the inscription on palseographical grounds as belong-
ing to the end of the first or the beginning of the second cen-
tury of our era, we have an indication of the comparatively
early date at which Isis had established herself in the north-
western part of the peninsula.
Finally, it may be noted that the dedication from Panoias
(2395, c) is one of five cut in the rocks beside a sacred lake.
All are in parts illegible or badly copied, but the same dedi-
cant, C. Calpurnius Rufinus, appears in three, one of which
(2395, 6) records the establishment of the sacred place Diis :
deabusque aeternum lacum omnibusque numinibus et amphi-

theatrum ^^ cum hoc templo sacra vit C. Calp(urnius) Rufinus
v(oti) c(ompos), in quo hostiae voto cremantur.
It is well known that women and slaves were especially
devoted to Isis and her associates indeed, these gods may
;
have been brought to the west in connection with the slave

trade.^^ Now it appears that seven of the fourteen Isiac
inscriptions are due to free-born women, among whom we
find at Igabrum (1611) a priestess established by the com-
munity with the title Isiaca Igabrensis and another at Bra-
cara (2416) in the northwest of the peninsula, who was sacer-
dos perpetuae Romae et August i. The two dedications from
Valentia (3730, 3731) were set up by a sodalicium vernarum
^°
In any case we have the record of an African legatus there in the dedication to
Diana of a temenos and temple by Q. Tullius Maximus leg(atus) Aug(usti) le-
g(ionis) septimae gem(inae) felicis (2. 2660), who describes himself as Tullius e
Libya. The inscription dates from the time of Trajan or of Hadrian.
*^
So Mommsen the stone has lapitearum, according to report.
;
^ At first the women seem to have belonged to the lower class or the demimonde.
Catullus, 10, 26 f. volo ad Sarapim defend. Tibullus, i. 3, 23 f. quid tua nunc Isis
mihi, Delia, quid mihi prosuntjilla tua totiens aera repulsa manu ? Cf. id. \ii. 27.
Propertius, iii. 33, 1 S. Ovid, Amores, i. 8, 74 ii. 13, 7 ff.
; ;
Ars am. i. 77 fi.,
etc. Juvenal, vi. 522 ff. Later the devotees were not limited by such social dis-
tinctions.
and a certain Callinicus servus. Although to draw definite

conclusions from these data alone would perhaps be as mis-
leading as counting bonnets in a church to-day, it is inter-
esting that the facts in Spain accord with the evidence
elsewhere.
It will not have escaped notice that none of the dedications
to the Egyptian divinities has been found in the interior, but
that all are distributed through what we may call the ex-
terior zone of the peninsula and that only two come from ;
Lusitania. In contrast to this, four of the seven inscriptions

testifying to the worship of the Great Mother belong in that
province. They are as follows :
Lusitania.
Olisipo, 2. 178. Deum matri |

T. Licinius |
Amaranthus |
v.s.l.m.
2. 179. Matri de|um Mag(nae) Ide|aePhryg(iae)
Fl(avia) | Tyche cerno|phor(a) per M. lul(ium) Cas- |
s(ianum) et Cass(iam) Sev(eram). |

M. At(ilio) et Ann(io)
Gal(lo) coss. (108 a.d.)
Capera, 2. 805. Matri deum Britta (sic). | |
Emerita, 2. 5260. M(atri) d(eum) s(acrum). Val(eria) |
Avita aram tauroboli sui natalici red|diti d. d. sacerdojte

I |
Docyrico Vale|riano, arcigallo Publicio Mystico. |
Baetica.
Corduba, 2. 5521. Ex iussu Matris deum | pro salute

imperii taurobolium
|
fecit Publicius {
Valerius Fortunatus
Thalamus suscepit crionis Porcia
; |
Bassenia sacerdote ; |
Aurelio Stephano dedicata viii Kal. April.

; | |
Pio et Proculo
cos. (238 A.D.)
Tarraconensis.
Monte Cildad, Eph. Epig. 8. p. 424, 160. Matri deum|

C. Licinius Cis[s]|us templum | [e]x voto . . . m.
Insula Balearis Minor.
Mago, 2. 3706. M. Badius Honor[atus] |

et Cornelius
Silv[anus] | templum Matri Ma[gnae et] Atthin(i) de s. p. [f].
Of the two inscriptions from Olisipo (178, 179) happily

the second is dated by the consuls as belonging to the year
108 A.D. It shows the cult with a well-developed personnel,
although it need not therefore prove that the Great Mother
had long been established at Olisipo. The title cernophora
reappears in inscriptions only. Corpus, 10. 1803, from Puteoli :
D(is) M(anibus) Heriae Victorianae caernophoro M. Herius

Valerianus filiae dulcissimae, but the nature of the office is
suggested by the mention of the cernus in Corpus, 8. 23401
from Mactar dating from the reign of Probus
in Africa,
(285-293) : cernorum crioboli et tauro-

perfectis rite sacris
boli, and in Corpus, 6. 508, from the city of Rome of the date
April 19, 319 taurobolium
:
criobol(ium) cerno perceptum
per Fl(avium) Antonium Eustochium sac(erdotem) Phry-
g(ium) max(imum). That the cernus (Kepvo^) played an im-
portant part in the mysteries of Cybele in Asia Minor and
Greece is known to us. Alexander the iEtolian sings in
Alcman's name, Anthologia Palatina, vii. 709 :
^dp8ie<i ap')(âlaL^ iraTepcov vofjb6<i, el p,ev iv vfitv

erpeôfxav^ Kepva^ rjV Ti9
âK€Xa<iav rj
^pv(70(f)6po'i py]cr(TQ)V KaXa rvfiirava

vvv he •
/jlol 'AXufxav
ovvofia, Kol ^Trdpra'i et/xl iroXvTpiTroSo'i.
Likewise Nicander in his Alexipharmaca, 217 ff. :
^ are Kepvo(f)6po'i ^dKopo<i /ScofMicrrpia 'Pet?;?

elvdSi Xao(f)6poLcrtv ivi'^^pL/xTTTovaa Ke\evdot<i
jxaKpov eireixôda yX(0(7<7T) 6p6ov, ktX.
Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticos, i. 2, 13, tells us dis-

tinctly that the carrying of the Kepvo'i was a regular part
of the initiation into the rites of Attis, Cybele, and the Cory-
bantes ravra TeXiaKovaiv ol ^pvye'; "AttlSl koX KûêXj] koL
:
K.opv^8acn,
—
rd av/xôXa tt}? ixvT]crea><i Tavrr]<? eic rvfjLTrdvov €(f)a<yov,
eK KUfxfSdXou eTTtoy, iKepvocfidprjcra, viro rov Tracnov virehvov. The
scholiast on Plato's Gorgias, p. 497, assures us that the same
formula was used in the lesser mysteries iv oh (sc. toU fic- :
Kpol<i fivtTrr]piOL^) TToXXd fiev iirpdrreTO alc'^pd^ eXeyero Be tt/so?

TMV fivovixevcov ravra '
'eK rvfxirdvov ecfyayov. eK KVfxâXov eiriov,
iKepvo(f)6pri(7a (Kepvo'i he ro Xikvov rjyovv to rrrvov e<jriv\ viro rov

iracrrov virehvov Kal rd e^P]^.' In fact we may be sure that the
Kepvo^, or itscounterpart the \Uvov, filled with sacred sym-

bols, was carried in many forms of mystic initiation. The
vessel itself doubtless varied in shape from a simple vase
to those elaborate affairs described by Athenseus which
were obviously intended for offering the TrayKapiria^^ In
the case of the taurobolium or criobolium the cernus was
probably used to hold the vires of the victim as it may have
been for the alBolov of the newly consecrated Gallus.^^
Now it will be observed that the two inscriptions in which
the cernus is mentioned are taurobolic, which fact at once
raises the question whether the inscription from Olisipo is
also of that character. Although the taurobolium is not
expressly mentioned, it is noteworthy that aside from the
title cernophora, we have the formula of agency per M.
lulium Cassianum et Cassiam Severam, which is exactly the
expression used in the taurobolic inscription of 319 a.d.
quoted above.^^ It is, therefore, not impossible that our
inscription is of like nature if it be, it antedates by twenty-
;
six years the puzzling inscription from Puteoli (Corpus, 10.
1596), which is usually regarded as the earliest record of a

taurobolium. To follow the traditional view may be the
safer course in view of the paucity of our data, but I have
grave doubts if it is the correct one.
The dedication of the altar at Emerita (5260) on palseo-
graphical evidence is placed toward the end of the second
century. The meaning of the expression aram tauroboli sui
natalici redditi is discussed by Hiibner ad loc, who holds
that the altar recorded a taurobolium paid the god on Avita's
birthday, while Mommsen, whom Hiibner quotes, prefers
to think that the altar records the payment of a birthday
vow for the taurobolium which Avita had performed one or
twenty years before. The language of our inscription is
obscure, but I am inclined to agree with Zippel, I.e., p. 499,
in holding that since the one who received the taurobolium
was renatus, the day on which he entered his new life might
« Athen. pp. 476, 478.

xi.
" This isthe view of Hepding, Attis, pp. 190-192, in which I h«artily concur.
Cf. Zippel, das Taurobolium, Festschrift L. Friedlander dargebracht, 1895, p. 508.
•^
Cf. Corpus, 8. 8203, crioboUum fecerunt et ipsi susceperunt per C. Aemilium
Saturninum sacerdotem.
well be called his dies natalis, even as Paulinus of Nola (xxi.

171) used this term for the day on which the martyrs in
superna regna nascuntur dei. If this view be correct, the
word natalici an adjective, and the whole expression means
is
nothing more than aram tauroboliatam.^^

The taurobolic inscription from Corduba (5521) requires
no especial comment, but we may note that it is one of the
latest cases in which it is recorded that a taurobolium was
offered for the welfare of the imperial house or empire. So
far as the extant data show, such dedications begin with
Corpus, 14. 40 from Ostia (169-175 a.d.) and close with 14. 42,
likewise from Ostia (251-253 a.d.). Finally it should be
observed that the inscription from Mago (3706) is the only
evidence we have for oriental cults in the Balearic Islands;
it is also the only one of the Spanish inscriptions in which
Attis is mentioned.
We now come to Mithras and the solar divinities, which
have been fully treated by Cumont in his monumental work,
Textes et Monuments figures relatifs aux Mysteres de Mithra,
2 vols., Bruxelles, 1894, 1896. Discoveries subsequent to
the publication of this work have added a few inscriptions.
It should be said that it is impossible to state with certainty
in all cases that the solar divinity is to be identified with
Mithras in fact, we must doubt if that is the case.
;
Still
the syncretistic practice of the empire after the middle of
the second century at least makes any distinction between
these divinities impossible, so that it is wise as well as con-
venient to consider them all together. The geographical
distribution of the inscriptions is as follows :
Lusitania
Olisipo, 2. 258 (C. 516). Soli et Lunae |

Cestius Acidius I
Perennis leg(atus) Aug(usti) pr(o) pr(aetore)

| | provinciae
Lusitaniae.
2. Soli aeterno, Lunae, pro aeter-
259 (C. 517). | ]
nitateimjperiet salute imp (eratoris) Ca[es(aris)] [L.] Septimi |
Severi Aug(usti) Pii et [im(peratoris)] Caes(aris) M. Aureli

|
Antonini Aug(usti) Pii [et P. Septimi Getae nob(ilissimi)]|

|
« Corpus, 14. 39. Cf. 6. 503, 509, 510, and often.

Caes(aris) Aug(ustae) matris c[a]s[tr(oriim)]

et [Iiijliae |
Drusus Coelianus v. [c] [leg(atus)] Augustonim

Valer(iiis) ] |
cii[ram] [ag(ente)] Vale[r]i[o] [Q]ua[drato] Q. lulius Satur- |
[ninus] [et] Q. Val(erius) Antoni[anus].^^

|
Emerita, 2. 464 (C. 512). Caute Tib(erius) Cl(audius)| |
Artemidorii[s] p.^ |
Rev. Arch. 5. (1905), p. 327, 24. Invicto deo Quintio

Flavi Ba[e]tici Con[im]brig(ensis)ser(vo).
ibid. ^5. Anno col(oniae) CLXXX; aram genesis
Invicti Mithrae M. Val(erius) Secundus pr(inceps) le-
g(ionis) vii Gem(inae) dono ponendam merito curavit. C.

Accio Hedychro pa[t]re. (155 a.d.)
ibid. 26. C. Accius Hedychrus p(ater) patrum.
Capera, 2. 807 (C. 518). Soli | .invict(o) | Aug(usto)|
sacrum.
2. 5319 « deo
Caesarobriga, (C. 521). S(acrum .^) | |
inax|imo.
Baetica.
Medina de las Torres, 2. 1025. M. C. p.^° A. Asellius | |
Threptus Romulensis d. d. | [
Malaca, 2. 1966 (C. 519). L. Servilius Supera|tus

domino Invicto |
donum libens ani|mo posuit | ara|(m)
merenti.
Italica, 2. 5366. Deo Invi[c]to | Mith[r(ae)] |
Secundinus
dat.
Tarraconensis.
Tarraco, 2. 4086 (C. 515). [Invijcto Mithra[e] . . .

(duo)
|
vir 1
. . . cime nn. XV.
. . .
Trillo, 2. 6308 (C. 523). Soli Aug(usto) v(otum) |
Dio G(ai) lib(ertus) s(olvit) l(ibens).

|
Ba?tulo, 2. 4604 (C. 524). Soli d(eo) sacrum |

A. P(om-
peius) Abascantus.
Asturica, 2. 2634 (C. 522). I(ovi) o(ptimo) m(aximo), |
*''
I have adopted Hiibner's restoration of the last four lines.
*^
Either p(ater) or p(osuit).
^^
Cumont prefers to read S(oli), which may be right. In either case we are not
far wrong in placing this dedication in the same class with those to the solar divini-
ties and to Mithras.
^^
Hiibner expands to read M(ithrae) C(auto) p(ati). :
Soli invicto, Libero Genio praetor(ii)I Q. Mami-

| patri,
l(ius) Capitoliniis ]
Flaminiam et Umbriam
iuridicus per |
et Piceniim, | leg(atus) Aug(usti) per Asturiam et Gallae- |
ciam, dux leg(ionis) vii [g(eminae)] p(iae) [f(elicis)], | prae-

f (ectus) aer(arii) Sat(urni) pr[o] salute sua |
et suorum.
Caldas de Vizella, 2. 2407 (C. 520). [lunoni] reginae, |
Minerjvae, Soli, Lunae, di|is onini[p]o[t(entibus)],

|
For- |
tuna[e], | Mercur;i[o], genio Io;vis, genio Martis, [A]es- |
culajpio, Luci, [S]omno,|[V]eneri, [CJupidini, [C]aelo,

| ] |
[Ca]s|[t]o[r]ibus, | [Cer]er[i], | [G]en(io) Victloriae, Ge|nio

meo, diissedjispervi(ae ?) aetmoc|iaii ccc|r cos cinna gl.
I | | |
San Juan de Isla, 2. 2705 = 5728 (C. 514). Ponit In|victo

deo austo po|nit lebien|s Fronto; aram Invi|cto deo
I |
au|sto F. ( .'*) levenjs ponit pre|sedente pa]trem patra|tum

leone|m.
Caldas de Reyes, 2. 5635 (C. 573). Caujtilnto. . .
Of these inscriptions three can be dated. The second dedi-

cation from Emerita (Rev. Arch. 5 (1905), p. 327, 25) is
fixed at 155 a.d. by the words anno coloniae CLXXX and ;
the third inscription {ibid. 26) evidently must be of about the

same time. The dedication from Asturica (2634) cannot
have been set up earlier than the time of Marcus Aurelius,
who was the first to employ iuridici ^^ probably the inscrip- ;
tion dates from the early third century when under Sep-
timius Severus and his associates the oriental cults received
a new impulse. Finally the imperial titles in 2. 259 from
Olisipo fix its date as between June, 198, when Caracalla was
associated with Septimius Severus as Augustus and Geta was
made Caesar, and 209, when Geta was given the tribunitian
power and raised to the position of Augustus.
The dedications from Emerita show that in the middle of
the second century the cult had a developed personnel at that
place, the head of which was C. Accius Hedychrus, pater
patrum. It will be observed that his Greek cognomen sug-
gests that he may have been of humble birth if not of the
freedman class. Indeed, the members of the higher social
classes seem not to have held the sacred Mithraic offices to
any considerable extent, and are not represented at all among
*^
Cf. Marquardt, Staatsverw., 1. 224-£27 (2d ed.); Mommsen, Staatsrecht,
2. 1084 f. (3d ed.).
the dedicants named in the inscriptions which can be placed

within the first two centuries of our era. The only oflBcial of
high rank who appears in this period is M. Valerius Maxi-
mianus,^^ legate of Numidia under Commodus, who showed
a crazy devotion to Eastern cults.^^ With the third century,
however, the situation changes, and in increasing numbers
members of the equestrian and senatorial nobility appear in
the list of dedicants, until in the last great stand made by pa-
ganism against Christianity in Rome during the fourth cen-
tury the highest nobility almost preempts the worship.
Of the dedicants in Spain all apparently belong to the lower
classes except the two legati Augusti at Olisipo (258, 259)
and the dux legionis at Asturica (2634).
The association in 2634 of Liber with lupiter optimus
maximus and Sol invictus is paralleled by 6. 707, Sol(i)
Serapi lovi Libero patri et Mercurio et Silvano sacrum, as
well as by the cases in the fourth century in which devotees
of Mithras were also sacrati or officials of Liber pater. ^^
There is, however, no close parallel for the medley of gods
shown in 2407. Of the divinities there named the following
are nowhere else associated with either Sol or Mithras :
iEsculapius, Lux, Somnus, Venus, Cupido, Castores, Ceres,

and dii sedis per (viae). Of the other divinities, aside from
Sol and Luna, luno, Minerva, and lupiter are of course the
Capitoline triad, although some interpretatio barbara may
have been put upon them by the dedicant Fortuna and Vic- ;
toria are personifications to which the soldiery frequently

^^
paid their devotion ; in the dii omnipotentes we are doubt-
less to see Magna Mater and Attis, as in 6. 502, 503, and 8.
^^
8457 ; and Mercurius and Mars frequently appear in dedi-
62
Corpus, 8. 2621.
*'
Historia Augusta, Vita Com., 9. 4-6. Under Septimius Severus the cult of
Mithras was established in the imperial household. Corpus, 6. 2271 D. M. L. :
Septimius Aug(ustorum trium) lib(ertus) Archelaus, pater et sacerdos invicti

Mithrae domus augustanae fecit sibi et Cosiae Primitivae coniugi benemerenti
libertislibertabusque posterisq(ue) eorum.
^
Corpus, 6. 500, 504, 507, 510, 1675 (and Eph. Epig., 8. 648), 1779.
6*
In Mithraic (or Solar) dedications Fortuna and Victoria are found in Corpus,
6. 31139 and Corpus, 13. 8812 (C. 129, 470).
6*
Also 6. 508, where the denomination is potentissimi dii. Cf. H. Graillot, Lcs
Dieux Tout-Puissants Cybele et Attis et leur Culte dans I'Afrique du Nord. Rev.
Arch., 3 (1904), pp. 322-353.
cations made by men of Celtic or Germanic stock. In

the following inscriptions erected by equites singulares
we have rough parallels to our inscriptions, 6, 31139:
(in adversa) Voto suscepto sacr(um), lovi optimo ma-

x(imo), Soli divino, Marti, Mercur(io), Herculi, Apollin(i),
Silvan (o), et dis omnibus et genio imp(eratoris) Hadriani
Aug(usti) et genio singularium M. Ulpius Tertius cives Tri-
bocus Cl(audia) ara missus honest(a) missione ex numer(o)
eq(uitum) sing(ularium) Aug(usti) viii id(us) lanuar(ias)
Asprenate ii et Libone co(n)s(ulibus) votum solvit libens
merito. (in aversa) Voto suscepto sacr(um), lun(oni),
Victoriae, Fortun(ae), Felicitati, Minervae, Campestrib(us),
Fatis, Salut(i) et omnibus deabus et genio imp(eratoris)
Hadriani Aug(usti) et genio singular(ium) M. Ulpius Tertius
cives Tribocus Cl(audia) ara missus honest (a) missione ex
numero eq(uitum) sing(ularium) Aug(usti) viii id(us)
lan(uarias) Aspernate II et Libone co(n)s(ulibus) votum sol-
vit libens mer(ito) (128 a.d.)- Ihid., 31171 lovi, lunoni, :
Soli, Lunae, Herculi, Minervae, Marti, Mercurio, Campes-

tribus, Terrae, Caelo, Mari, Neptuno, Matribus Suleis, genio
imp(eratoris) M. Ulpius Nonius veteranus Aug(usti) cives
Nemens(is) v(otum) s(olvit) l(ibens) m(erito).
The gods in these inscriptions, however, fall readily into
certain groups the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and
—
:
Minerva, the celestial fires Sol and Luna, and in the third
inscription the earth, heaven, and ocean Terra, Caelus,
—
Mare( = Neptunus) the Germanic Donar, Wodan, and
;
Tin with the Roman names of Mars, Mercurius, and Her-

cules other Germanic or Illyrian gods called Apollo and Sil-
;
vanus and local native divinities

;
—
Campestres, Fata, and
Matres." These offer therefore no exact parallels to our in-
scription from Caldas de Vizella. Probably the multipli-
cation of gods in it proves nothing more than the desire of
the unknown dedicant to give full expression to his pantheis-
ticdevotion to that divinity which showed itself everywhere
under manifold forms and names.^^
There remains one inscription from Valentia 2. 5127. :
Deo aeterno sacrum L. Pomponius Fundanus cum suis

| | | |
'^
Wissowa, Religion Kultus, p. 77, n. 4, and the literature there quoted.
u.
^*
Cf. the familiar passages in Apuleius, Metamorphoses, xi. 2, 5.
omni|bvis votiim 1. a. solvit. Ciimont has made it very

]
probable that we are to see in the deus aeternus, to whom

^^
numerous dedications have been found especially in Dacia,

some one of the Syrian Baalim. Since these Baalim were
regarded as sun-gods, it is likely that this dedication belongs
with the Mithraic inscriptions as much as many of the dedi-
cations to Sol, but I have hesitated to place it among them.
The foregoing detailed examination shows the way in
which oriental cults penetrated to the remoter parts of the
Roman Empire, as can be abundantly illustrated also by
every Roman frontier in western Europe.^° But there is this
differencebetween the British and Germanic frontiers, for
example, and Spain, that in case of the former the soldiers
were the most important agents in spreading and continuing
these oriental cults, while in Spain, as has been already
pointed out, nearly all the dedicants were civilians of ap-
parently humble station. This fact accords with the history
and condition of the Spanish provinces under Roman rule,
for the greater part of the peninsula was so early subjugated
that its life was civil rather than military .^^
If we except the dedication apparently made to Hercules
Invictus by Tiberius Caesar in 14 a.d. at Tucci (2. 1660),
the other datable inscriptions fall within the second and
third centuries of our era, the extremes being 108 a.d.
(2. 179) and 238 a.d. (2. 5521). This agrees with the condi-
tions in the other European provinces,^^ in all of which the
dedications to the oriental gods seem to cease with the third
century .^^
Although the sum total of the evidence is sufficient to
show that the eastern gods had considerable vogue in Spain,
have been observed that the data are widely scattered
it will
and prove the cult of more than a single divinity in only a few
of the larger towns. The following table exhibits these :
^'
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie, 1. 696 f.
^° For the British frontier see Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 11. 48-58 ;
for the German, Trans, of the Am. Phil. Assn., 38. 109-150.
«i
Cf. Trans, of the Am. Phil. Assn., 38. Ill ff.
*^
For Gaul and the Germanies, see Trans. Am. Phil. Assn., I.e.
^ The
chronology of oriental cults in the west has been fully treated by Dr.
D. N. Robinson in a dissertation which I hope will soon be published. Vide Har-
vard Studies in Classical Philology, 22. 182 f. (1911).
Lusitania.
Olisipo. Magna Mater, 2. 178, 179. Sol et Luna, 2. 258,

259.
Emerita. Magna Mater, 2. 5260. Mithras, Rev. Arch., 5.
(1905) p. 327. 24, 25, 26.

Capera. Magna Mater, 2. 805. Sol Invictus, 2. 807.
Tarraconensis.
Tarraco. Caelestis, 2. 4310. Isis, 2. 4080. Mithras, 2.
4086.
Valentia. I. O. M. Ammon, 2. 3729. Isis, 2. 3730, 3731.
Deus Aeternus, 2. 5127.
Asturica. Isis, 2. 50Q5. Sol Invictus, 2. 2634.
Of course we have only a mere fragment of the evidence

which once existed, so that such tables as these have little
quantitative value, but on the whole, after all allowances
have been made, they have a certain significance as illustrat-
ing the variety of religious life in these cities.
No city of Bsetica appears in this table. This is probably
the result mainly of chance, but the question certainly arises
whether chance may not have been aided by Christian influ-
ence. The oldest Christian communities in Spain known to
us were found at Caesar Augusta (Saragossa), Astorica,
Leon, and Emerita,®^ but Christianity must have had a much
wider foothold than this, for about the year 300 no less than
thirty-seven bishops and presbyters attended the council at
Elvira (Granada) ^^ of these twenty-three represented Chris-
;
tian communities in Baetica.

In the other Spanish provinces Christianity was relatively
weak, and it is interesting to note that of the places in Lusi-
tania which, as shown in the table given above, offer proof
of the existence of more than one oriental cult, only Emerita
was certainly a bishopric in the period under discussion, and
only Asturica among the three cities of Tarraconensis; it
84
Cyprian, Ep. 67.
*^
Cf. Duchesne, Le concile d'Elvire et les flamines chretiens, 1886 ; Hamack,
Mission u.Ausbreitung des Christentums, 2. 255-262 (2d ed.), on the history of
Spanish Christianity in the first three centuries.
seems strange that Tarraco did not possess a bishop, but there
is no evidence that such was the case. Of the conflict
between oriental cults and Christianity we hear nothing
directly during these centuries, but the paucity of our data
from Baetica may be an indirect evidence of the struggle.
Cambridge,
February, 1911.
THE CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE
HAMMURABI CODE
David Gordon Lyon
Harvard University
The Hammurabi Code is devoted strictly to civil, secu-
lar affairs. Several of its laws make mention of the god,

the temple, and the religious devotee, never, however, as
prime objects of legislation. When religious characters and
institutions are mentioned at all, it is on account of their
relation to the civil, social topics considered by the legisla-
tor.^ Though Hammurabi was deeply devoted to religion,
as appears in the prologue and the epilogue to the Code, no
feature of the Code itself is clearer than that its material
and aims are entirely secular.
The religious characters named in the Code are certain
classes of devotees, all of whom are women. The laws re-
lating to this subject are not grouped together, as naturally
would be the case, if the devotees had been thought of as
one of the topics of legislation, but are scattered, singly or
in small groups, through the Code.^ The list, with the
1
See an article on The Structure of the Hammurabi Code, in the Journal of
the American Oriental Society, 25. 248 ff. (1904).
^
Various other subjects are similarly broken up and scattered. This has led
some students to the conclusion that there is no sustained coherency or system
in the Code. Others find system, indeed, but only of an artificial kind, arrived
at by laying on the Code a framework of their own devising. I refer here in par-
ticular to Professor J. Kohler of Berlin, who has given much attention to the inter-
pretation of the Code. In the article referred to under note ^ I criticised the analysis
of the Code given by him and Peiser. In a brief rejoinder, Hammurabi's Gesetz, 3.
221 f. (1909), the criticism is rejected. I can hardly think that the grounds of it
were clearly understood. My analysis shows that the laws are very carefully
arranged under the two heads Property and Person, that each of these has throe
subheads, and each subhead still smaJler divisions, down to the individual laws.
The proof of the correctness of this scheme is to read the Code with this analysis in
hand. The analysis ascribed to me in the work just cited is something quite
different.
341
342 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE liAMMUR.VBI CODE
subject of the respective laws, is here appended. It shows

that the devotees are introduced in sixteen laws, which appear
in seven different connections in the Code,
Number and Subject of the Laws

40.
DAVID GORDON LYON 343
here chosen as the vaguer term, but is meant to be only

provisional.
is represented by the signs nin dingir,
^
Another class
the second of which means a god, and the first, 'lady' or
'sister.' In the syllabaries this combination is explained as
entum. A third is written zi ik ru um.^
Whether this is to be pronounced zikrum, as written, or
is to be taken as an ideogram, is, as Kohler and Ungnad
have pointed out,^ uncertain. Most students have taken the
writing as syllabic, and have connected the word with a
common Assyrian word meaning 'male.' It is in all the
occurrences preceded by the sign sal, i.e. sitinistu, 'woman.'
The combination may be read sinnistu zikrum, which would
mean 'woman who is a zikrum,' or the first word might be
taken as construct, as has been almost universally done,
and translated 'woman of the male.' Construing thus,
it has been the rule to see in the zikrum a woman of low
morals. Whether there is any ground for this view beyond

an uncertain etymology and an uncertain translation of the
laws in which the name zikrum occurs, will appear, I hope,
as this inquiry proceeds.
A
fourth class, the nu gig or kadistu, occurs but once
(181), as does also a fifth, the nu bar or zermasitum (181).
As understood by most interpreters, the kadistu has shared
the evil renown of the zikruyn.
This enumeration shows that there are five classes of
these consecrated women mentioned in the Code, or seven
if we reckon three varieties of votary, the votary in general
(sal me), the votary of Marduk, and the votary of the

convent.
In the first half of the Code our subject is mentioned but

twice, 40, 110. Paragraph 40 is in the section dealing with
the alienation of one's ownership in State lands. In the
paragraphs preceding we learn that certain classes of men
(the redu and the hairu) could not sell field, orchard, or
house, 36. These classes, together with the nasi bilti,
could not give real estate to wife or child, nor in payment
6 6
§§ 110, 127, 178, 179. §§ 178, 179, 180, 187, 192, 193.
^
Hammurabi's Gesetz, 2. 134.
844 CONSECRATED WOMEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE
for debt, 38,though they might so dispose of the property

which they had bought with their own means, 39. Then
40 states that the votary, the iamkar,^ or any other ilku
(except, of course, the classes named in 36-38) might sell
his or her field, orchard, or house. This group of laws shows
that certain classes of feudal tenants, as the redu and the
ba'iru, were held to a stricter usage than other classes in
regard to their tenure of State lands. The reason probably
is that their relations to the State were more intimate and
important. They rendered military service, and may have

been required to live on inalienable State lands, that they
might be always ready for such service. Greater freedom
was enjoyed by the votary and other classes whose relation
to the State was less intimate, and their functions less
important.
The second reference (110) is in a section of four laws
regulating the sale of liquor. The liquor traffic seems to
have been in the hands of women. In 108 it is decreed
that the wineseller who deviates from the relative values of
drink (sikari) and grain shall be thrown into the water
(drowned). In 109 if criminals congregate at her house,
and she does not seize them and lead them to the ekallim^
'palace, police station' ( ?), she shall be put to death. Ac-
cording to 110 the votary or sister of a god, "not living in
the convent, who shall open a wine shop or shall enter one
to drink, shall be burned." The last law in the series pre-
scribes how much grain shall be paid at harvest time for
wine sold on credit (ill).
This group of laws shows that the drinking places of the
time stood in bad repute. The women engaged in the
business seem to have been unscrupulous, and their shops
were the resort of evil doers. No votary might engage in
this business or even enter one of the resorts for the pur-
chase of drink.
The phrase of 110, "not living in the convent," shows
' The
iamkar is a class of business men or merchants. Elsewhere in the Code
they appear as making advances of money or goods to the small dealer (100-107),
and as visiting foreign lands for purposes of trade (281). Ilku is the term for the
feudal relation, or, as in the present instance, for the feudal tenant. This feudal
relation included the redu, bairu, nasi bilti, votary, tamkar, and other classes.
that the votaries lived part of the time in the convent and
part of the time out of it, or that some of them lived in the
convent, while others did not. It is probable that all of
them passed through a period of such residence. Those
residing in the convent would naturally be so guarded and
occupied that there would be no opportunity to keep or
to frequent wine shops. On the other hand, their sisters
not thus protected, but living in their own homes and lead-
ing active lives of business, might be tempted to engage in
the liquor traffic, or to endanger their reputation by visit-
ing the wine shops.
The first topic in the second half of the Code is the Family ;
the first division concerns Man and Wife, and the first law
(127) provides for the protection of the reputation of woman.
"If a man point the finger (of suspicion) at the sister of a
god or at the wife of a man, and do not establish (the charge),
that man shall be haled before the judges, and his hair ( ?)
shall be cut that is, he shall be sold into slavery. The
ofiF,"
sister of a god is here mentioned before the wife of a man,
in accordance with the principle that when the same law
mentions sacred and secular things, the Code always names
the sacred things first. This law demands that the fair
name of the religious devotee shall have the same protec-
tion as that of a man's wife.
The sacred women appear next in a law regulating divorce,
137. "If a man set his face to divorce a secondary wife
who has borne him children or a votary who has caused
him to have (uârû) children, unto that woman shall be
returned her dowry {seriktu), and there shall be given to
her a portion(.'^) of field, orchard, and possessions, and she
shall rear the children. After she has reared the children
there shall be given to her from the property which was
given for her children a share equal to the share of one
child, and the man of her choice may marry her."
In this law the secondary wife 'bears' children to her hus-
band, while the votary 'provides' him with children. This
provision might be made not necessarily by bearing, but
equally well by giving to her husband a slave wife (see 146,
147), and probably also by adoption. It is noteworthy that
the Code does not use the verb 'to bear' at all in connection
with the votary wife, a topic to which I shall return later.
The law which we are now considering gives the children to
the divorced mother, with enough of the paternal property
to provide for their rearing. On their reaching maturity
what remained of this property was divided among them,
the mother receiving the same as one child. She was then
free to remarry, or rather "the man of her heart" might
marry her, for in the Code the man always takes the wife,
never vice versa. A widow was, under certain restrictions,
allowed to remarry while there were still minor children, as
we learn from 177. The divorced wife was required first to
rear the children.
The rights of wives is the subject of 144-150, and the
votary wife figures in four of the laws, 144-147. Her rights
are defined, especially in her relations to secondary wives
and slave wives. The legislation is as follows :
1. "If a man marry a votary, and that votary give a

maid to her husband, and cause him to have {ustabsi) chil-
dren, and that man set his face to take a secondary wife,
they shall not favor it, he shall not take a secondary wife,"
144.
2. "If a man marry a votary, and she have not caused
him to have children, and he
set his face to take a secondary
wife, that man may take a secondary wife (and) may bring
her into his house, but this secondary wife shall not make
herself the equal of the votary," 145.
3. "If a man marry a votary, and she give a maid to
her husband, and that maid bear children, and afterwards
make herself the equal of her mistress because she has
borne children, her mistress shall not sell her for money ;
she may reduce her to servitude, and reckon her with the
maidservants," 146. That is, the votary wife institutes the
relation between her husband and her maid, and she has
the power to break that relation. Every married man has
a right to children, and the votary wife provides the pos-
sibility of children by giving a slave wife to her husband.
4. "If she have not borne children, her mistress may sell
her for money," 147. That is, of course, in case of insub-
ordination or self -exaltation.
This group of laws insures the votary wife against the

presence of a secondary wife in the family, if the votary has
provided the means of family increase by giving a slave
wife to her husband. If no such provision has been made,
the man may take a secondary wife, but the latter shall not
be equal in rank to the votary wife. If the slave wife, on
bearing children, make herself the equal of the votary

wife, she may be put to service again. If she has not borne
children, she may be sold for her presumption. The posi-
tion of the votary wife in the family is at all times to be
superior to that of the secondary wife or the slave wife.
It may seem surprising that similar provisions are not
made in behalf of the hirtu, the regular, normal wife, who
was married at an early age. But inasmuch as barrenness
of such wives was probably rare, there would be little need
of such legislation ; whereas, if, as seems to be the case, the
votary wife did not ordinarily bear children, there would
be special need of legislation to protect her position in the
family. As votary, too, she doubtless enjoyed an additional
natural right to a position of honor.
The next appearance of these devotees is in the midst
of a long section dealing with the inheritance rights of
children. Among these children the maidens consecrated
to religion form a special group, 178-182, and all the classes
mentioned in the Code occur in this group, the sister of a
god, the votary, votary of the convent, votary of Marduk,
the zikrum, the kadistu, and the zermasitum.
From 178, 179 we learn the rights of consecrated daugh-
ters in regard to the disposition of gift or dowry made to
them by their fathers. In 178 the daughter enjoys the
income of her dowry, but on her death this dowry reverts
to her brothers. In 179 she is at liberty to dispose of it as
she will on her death.
178. "If a sister of a god, a votary, or a zikrum, whose
father has given her a dowry, has written for her a tablet
(and) in the tablet which he has written for her has not
written that she may dispose as she pleases of the property
which she leaves behind, and (thus) has not given to her
liberty of action,
— after the death of her father her brothers
shall take her field and her orchard, and according to the
yield of her share shall give to her grain, oil, and wool, and
shall satisfy her.
"
If her brothers do not give to her grain, oil, and wool,
according to the yield of her share, and do not satisfy her,

she may give her field and her orchard to a cultivator of
her choice, and her cultivator shall support her.
"
The use of field, orchard, and whatsoever her father gave
her she shall enjoy so long as she lives, (but) she may not
dispose of it for money, and to another she may not trans-
fer it. Her inheritance {i.e. at her death) belongs to her
brothers."
This law shows that the consecrated daughter, while en-
joying the income, does not normally have the care of her
property. The father sets aside for her certain properties,
and, as it seems, cares for
himself during his lifetime,
it
and sends her the proceeds. Then the

brothers take the
father's place in the care of the property, but she may set
them aside for another if she choose.
The next law differs in but one essential point. The gift
is unconditional, and the daughter has complete freedom as
testatrix.
179. "If a sister of a god, a votary, or a zikrum, whose
father has given her a dowry, has written for her a sealed
tablet, (and) in the tablet w^hich he has written for her has
written that she may dispose as she pleases of the property
which she leaves behind, and (thus) has given her liberty
of action, —
after the death of her father she may give the
property which she leaves as she may choose. Her brothers
have no claim upon her."
In this case it seems probable that the gift was outright,
and that the daughter made her own arrangements regard-
ing the care of the property and the payment of the in-
come. Whether she could part with it during her lifetime
depends on the translation of the word ivarkaza. I have
rendered this word by 'the property which she leaves,'
but it might equally well be rendered 'the property which
is left In view of the frequency of the transfer of
to her.'
property by consecrated women, as seen in the contem-
porary business records, the second rendering might seem
preferable.
The next three laws of this group make provision for

those consecrated daughters to whom the father has not
given a dowry. In 180 the classes named are the votary
of the convent and the zikrum.
180. "If a father has not given a dowry to his daughter,
a votary of the convent or a zikrum, after the death of the
father she shall inherit from the paternal estate a portion
equal to that of a son, and shall enjoy the use of it so long
as she lives. After her death it belongs to her brothers."
181. "If a father has dedicated to a god (his daughter)
as votary, kadUtu, or zermasitum, and has not given her a
dowry, after the death of the father she shall inherit from
the paternal estate one third of the portion of a son, and
shall enjoy the use of it so long as she lives. After her
death it belongs to her brothers."
Why the daughters of 181 receive less than those of 180
is not apparent, as it perhaps would be if we understood
the difference between the classes themselves. Those of

181 may have been of lower rank, or may have enjoyed
other sources of income. The contrast in these two laws
seems not to be between the votary of the convent and the
zikrum (180) on the one side, and the votary, kadistu and
zermasitum (181), on the other, but in 181 'votary' seems
to be a more general term, embracing the kadistu and the
zermasitum. If this be so, the translation of 181 should read,
"If a father has dedicated to a god his daughter as votary,
be it as kadistu or as zermasitum," and so forth.
The last law in this series (182) relates to the votary of
Marduk of Babylon who has not been provided for by her
father. On his death she receives the same share of the
estate as the daughters provided for in the law just con-
sidered. But there are two differences. It is expressly
stated that she does not have the care of the property, and
on her death her share does not revert to her brothers.
Her station as votary of the chief god of Babylon must
have been one of great honor. Why, then, does she receive
less than some of the other consecrated women ? There
may have been for her also, as just suggested for the classes
named in 181, sources of income connected with her office
which made a larger portion of the paternal estate unneces-
sary. Such a source would be the large endowments of the

temple of Marduk
at Babylon.
The law reads as follows: "If a father has not given a
dowry to his daughter, a votary of Marduk of Babylon,
and has not written for her a sealed tablet, after the death
of the father she shall inherit with her brothers from the
paternal estate one third of a son's portion, but she shall
not have the management thereof. The votary of Marduk
on her death may give (her property) to whomsoever she
please."
The votaries of Marduk seem to have led a more secluded
life than the votaries of the sun god. The latter, at all
events, are more prominent in the business transactions of
the time, but this may result from their being more numer-
ous, and thus appearing more frequently in the records.
The word for dowry in this group of laws (178-182) is
seriktu, and is the same word that is used for a paternal
gift to a daughter entering real marriage. Consecration is

viewed as a marriage of the maiden to a god.
It has already been remarked that the term sal me,
votary, may be a general and not a special title. The
* '
same may be the case with the term nin dingir, 'sister
of a god.' The word zikrum has been variously rendered
by students of the Code; as 'femme publique' by Scheil,^
'hure(.^)' by Kohler and Peiser,^'* 'buhldirne' by Winck-
ler,^^ 'courtesan' by Cook,^^ 'hure(?)' by Kohler and
Ungnad,^^ and 'femme-male' by Dhorme.^^ These render-
ings probably take the word zikrum as meaning 'male,
man,' and the sign sal, 'woman,' which precedes it as
in the construct relation, and thus get woman of the man,'
'
'
in the sense of prostitute.' But sal may be determina-
tive, in which case zikrum cannot mean 'man,' but is the
name of this class of women. If we were sure that the first
two consonants in the word were s and k, we might connect
^
La Loi de Hammourabi, 2d ed., Paris, 1904, p. 38.
V. Scheil,
1°
Hammurabi's Gesetz, 1. 53.
^1
Hugo Winckler, Die Gesetze Hammurabis, Leipzig, 1904, pp. 52 f.
^2
S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses and the, Code of Hammurabi, London, 1903,
148. " Hammurabi's Gesetz, 2. 134.
1^
Paul Dhorme, La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne, Paris, 1910, p. 300.
it with the very common Assyrian stem zhr meaning 'to

say, speak, mention.'
If a particular convent is meant in the name, 'votary of
the convent,' it may have been one connected with the
worship of the sun, Samas. The convent, gagum, is occa-
sionally mentioned in the records of business transactions,
and in such a way as to indicate that it was a Samas estab-
lishment. It seems to have been a place of considerable
extent, and at its great gate payments were sometimes
made.^^
So far as appears from this particular group of laws
(ITO-IS^), these consecrated women were expected to live
the celibate life, and we have already seen that the reputa-
tion for chastity of a 'sister of a god' was no less sacred
than that of a married woman, 127. But from another
group of laws we have seen that there is provision for the
marriage of votaries, 137, 144-147. How can the two
groups be reconciled ? The difference hardly lies in the
difference of class between the sister of a god and the votary.
It may well be that the office of the consecrated women
was not in all cases lifelong, though the title may have been.
And it may be that these women, when they married at all,
married as a rule late in life after the age of childbearing
had passed.
It is, at least, worthy of note that there is not in the
Code any mention of children by a 'votary,' nor indeed
by a member of any class of these consecrated women with
the possible exception of the zikrum, which will be discussed
below. In the marriage laws in which the votary figures
it seems to be assumed that she does not bear. The specific
word for bearing, alddu, is never applied to her, though it is
used about twenty times of other classes of wife {assatii, hirtu,
the secondary wife, and the widow who has married again).
The votary wife 'causes her husband to have' children
(usarsi, ustabsi). Thus, in paragraph 137 (p. 345, above)
the secondary wife has borne children to her husband (uldu),
while the votary has caused him to have children (usarsu;
of. also 145, usarsi). Similarly, in 144 a votary wife gives
IS
In Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, 8. 44 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 233),
rent isto be paid to a votary of Samas in the gate of the convent.
to her wife, and thus causes him to have

husband a slave
children {ustabsi). This consistent difference in the use of
terms can hardly be accidental, and the conclusion seems
natural that, as a rule at least, the votary wife was barren.
If, as already suggested, her marriage was late in life, the
reason for this barrenness will be understood. That ^"^
barrenness always followed the marriage of a votary was,

however, probably not the case. There is at least one
marriage of a Marduk votary recorded with the mention of
children. See p. 357 f., below.
After the passages thus far examined relating to conse-
crated women, only the zikrum is mentioned again in the
Code. In the section treating of the adoption of children
(185-193) she appears three times. In this section the
"
general law of adoption is first stated. If a man has
adopted a child in his own name, and has reared it, that
child {tarhitum) ^^ may not be reclaimed," i.e. of course,

by his real parents, 185. This is followed by a law con-
templating the return of an adopted child. "If a man has
adopted a child, (and) at the time of adopting him has
coerced (?) his father and his mother, that child {tarhitum)
shall return to his father's house," 186.
Then follows the law, 187, "The child of a manzaz panim,
^^
C. H. W. Johns has also noted the absence of children from the marriage of
votaries, and finds its explanation in the theory of perpetual virginity, Hastings's
Dictionary of the Bible, 5. 591, No. 2. This extraordinary view could not be ac-
cepted wdthout the strongest support. The proof passage seems to be Cuneiform
Texts, 2. 34, referred to by Johns in his Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts
and Letters, p. 137, thus "Very singular are the cases in which a votary marries.
:
We know from the code that this sometimes took place but the votary seems to have;
been expected, though married, to keep her vow of virginity. In one case we read
that a woman first devotes her daughter ullilsi, then marries her, and declares at
the same time that she is vowed, ellit, and that no one has any claim on her."
It is on the last expression that Johns seems to found his argument for perpetual
virginity. The expression does not mean, however, that the woman is not to be in the
full sense of the word a wife, but that no outsider has any claim on the bride for
service, there is no debt resting on her, or something of that kind. The expression
is of frequent occurrence, and in passages which leave no doubt as to its general
meaning, as Cuneiform Texts, 2. 3G ; 4. 4'-2 ; 8. 7.
The suggestion of perpetual virginity was made by Johns in an earlier article in
the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, 19. 96-107, especially
p. 104. This excellent article expresses the same favorable opinion of the conse-
crated women as that which is defended in the present paper.
" Tarhitum, in 185 and 186 designates the child as reared, or as adopted for
rearing.
a muzaz ekallim, and the child of a zikrum

may not be re-
claimed." The manzaz panim
a high dignitary or official,
is
and the zikrum is the consecrated woman whom we have

already met three times in the Code. Much depends on
the proper understanding of this passage. Is the meaning
this, that a child born to a manzaz panim or to a zikrum,
and adopted by some other person, may not be reclaimed
by its real parent ? Or this, that if a rnanzaz panim or a
zikrum has adopted a child, its real parent may not reclaim
it?
Either view is possible, and some of the translations
preserve the ambiguity of the original. Thus Harper :
"One may not bring claim for the son of a ner.se.ga,

who is a palace guard, or the son of a devotee." ^^ Kohler
and Peiser are quite as ambiguous,^^ and also Scheil,^*^ who
renders: "L'enfant d'un favori, familier du palais, ou celui
d'une femme publique ne pent etre reclame." In another
point Kohler and Peiser agree with Scheil, namely, in
giving a bad name to the zikrum. To the latter she is a
'femme publique,' and to the former a 'hure.' Winckler
renders "Der Sohn eines Buhlen im Palastdienste, und der
:
Sohn einer Buhldirne kann nicht abverlangt werden." -^ In

a note he asks "1st hiernach anzunehmen, dass Kinder von
:
Buhle und Buhldirne als liku (s. zu 15a, 62) in den Palast
kommen, um dort zu dienen, also dem Konig gehoren.?"
This language seems to imply that the children are the real
offspring of the classes named. Miiller goes yet further,
with the statement that the largest share of adopted
children came from such parents as might according to the
law beget and bear children, but not own them ("die nach
dem Gesetze wohl Kinder zeugen und gebaren, aber keine
haben durften ").2- Johns understands that "if a man
wished to adopt the child of a votary, he could do so, and
there was no legal representative to claim the child from
him. In other words, the votary had no legal power over
'^
Robert F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi, Chicago, 1904, p. 71.
1^
Hammurabi's Gesetz,1. 56. That the zikrum is in their view engaged in official
^^
prostitution, however, appears from p. 109. La Loi de Hammourabi, p. 39.
^^
Die Gesetze Hammurabis, pp. 56 f.
^ D. H. Miiller, Die Gesetze Hammurabis, p. 145.
her phild." ^ a consecrated woman might adopt

But if
children, as we shall soon see was the case, why might she
not also hold her own children ? See below, p. 358.
The next four laws do not mention the zikrum. They
are in substance as follows :
188. If an artisan adopt a child and teach him a handi-

craft, that child may not be reclaimed.
189. If he do not so teach him, the child may return to
his real father's house.
190. If a man adopt a child and rear him, and do not
make him the equal of his own sons, that child may return
to his father's house.
191. This law gives the conditions under which an adopted
son may be sent away. He shall not go empty handed, but
shall receive one third of a son's share, and may then be
dismissed.
Then come two laws in which the zikrum appears
again.
192. "If the son of a manzaz panim or the son of a zik-
rum say to the father who has reared him or to the mother
who has reared him, Thou art not my father, Thou art
not mother, his tongue shall be cut out."
my
193. "If the son of a manzaz panim or the son of a zik-
rum learn of his father's house, and despise ( ?) the father
who reared him or the mother who reared him, and go to
his father's house, his eye shall be put out."
The offence in 192 is denial of sonship to the adopting
parent, and that in 193 is running away and returning to
one's real father.
It a matter of consequence to determine whether the
is
zikrum the woman who bears or the woman who adopts

is
the child, because on the answer will depend one's view of her
character. Nearly or quite all translators have assumed
that she is the real mother, and that she is unmarried, and
hence that she is a low character. Dhorme, for instance,
^^
calls her the "femme-male qui se prostitue a tout venant."
Now, in opposition to this view several considerations may
be urged.
^'
C. H. W. Johns, in the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures,
19. 103. 2*
La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne, p. 300 f.
1. In the contemporary records we occasionally meet with

accounts of the adoption of children by consecrated women.^
2. In the three laws now under examination (187, 192,
193) the zikrum is mentioned with the manzaz panim, who

was a high official. It seems not likely that the children of
such official would be given to another person. But if he
be the adopting parent in these laws, the same must hold of
the zikrum.
3. The law in 193 says, "If the son of a manzaz panim or
the son of a zikrum learn of his father'' s house, and despise ( ?)
the father who reared him, or the mother who reared him,
and go to his father's house, his eye shall be put out." If
the zikrum be the real and not the adopting mother, why does
not the law say 'learn of his father's house or his mother's
'
house,' and, 'go to his father's house or his mother s house ?

"Learn of his father's house," "go to his father's house,"
might be said of the manzaz panim, but not of the zikrum,
unless the latter be married, in which case she is not the de-
graded creature which the translations make her.
4. In 178 and 179 the zikrum is named with the sister of
the god and the votsiTy, and in 180 with the votary of the
convent. She seems to stand on an equal footing with
these before the law. Her dowry rights are as carefully
defined as theirs.
5. The zikrum of 180 receives three times as large a share
of her father's estate as does the votary of Marduk in 182.

This would hardly be so if she were greatly inferior in charac-
ter to a Marduk votary.
It seems to me probable that the zikrum spoken of in these
laws was not married, and certain that she was the adopting
and not the real mother. What the ancient Babylonians
understood by these laws would therefore be as follows.
192. If a child adopted by a manzaz panim or by a zikrum
say to the father or to the mother who has reared him, Thou
art not my father, Thou art not my mother, his tongue shall
be cut out.
193. If a child adopted by a manzaz panim or by a zikrum
learn of the house of his real father, and despise ( ?) the father
^ See below, p. 358.

356 CONSECRATED WOINIEN OF THE HAMMURABI CODE
who has reared him or the mother who has reared him, and
go thither, his eye shall be put out.
In the light of this exposition No. 187 may be paraphrased
thus : A
child adopted by a manzaz panim, a muzaz of the
palace, or a child adopted by a zikrum, may not be reclaimed
by its real parent.
One is tempted to speculate as to the reason of this, but
such speculation would have as little value as the reasons
advanced to account for the law by those who understand
that the zikrum is the real mother.
We have now passed in review the seven passages of
the Code, covering sixteen laws, touching on the subject of
consecrated women. Under whatever designation these
women appear, as votary, votary of the convent, votary
of Marduk of Babylon, sister of a god, zikrum, kadistu,
zermasitum, they are always spoken of with respect. The
lawgiver meant to protect their good name and to define
their rights in respect to the great topics with which the
Code connects them, namely, sale of land, wine shops,
slander, divorce, marital rights, inheritance, and adoption
of children.
If this argument is correct, the Code of Hammurabi
furnishes no basis for an indictment of any class of these
consecrated women.
Except in one or two details,^® Johns has given a correct
and comprehensive, though brief, report of the subject.
"Nowhere in the Code," he writes,^^ "or elsewhere is there
any trace of the evil reputation which Greek writers assign
to these ladies, and the translations which make them
prostitutes, or unchaste, are not to be accepted." But even
Johns understands that the zikrum of 193 is the real and
not the adopting mother. "If she broke her vow and had
children, they were not recognized as in her power they could ;
be adopted by any one without her having power to claim

them back." Most improbable Slander of a sister of a
!
god was severely punished, 1^7. We

should expect that a
lapse from chastity by one of these consecrated women, if
^'
The chief of these exceptions is the statement, already noted, p. 352, above,
that votaries who married remained virgins.
^^
Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible, 5. 591.
known, would be punished as severely as the lapse of a

married woman in other words, by death, 129.
;
One wishes that the lawgiver had told us something of the

religious functions of these women. But of this he gives
not a trace. His eye was firmly fixed, as we have seen, on
civil not religious ends, and dedicated women are mentioned
not for their own sake, nor for the sake of religion, but be-
cause they are a special class in the community, and have
important relations to the great themes of the Code.
Thebest commentary on the Code is the mass of contem-

porary records of private and social transactions. Many
hundreds of these from the collections in the museums of
London, Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, and Philadelphia
have now been published. These records give us a rich
picture of the social conditions during the times of the
Hammurabi dynasty.-^
In this picture nothing is more noticeable than the
prominence of the consecrated women with whom the Code
has made us familiar. Here we meet not only the votary of
Marduk,'^^ but also the votary of Ninib,^" and with extraor-
dinary frequency the votary of Samas. We meet also the
sister of the god Suzianna,^^ the votary of Zamama,^^ the
kadistu of Adad,^^ and the zermasitum.^ This list makes it
probable that each of the great gods had a class of women
consecrated to him.
Occasional evidence of the marriage of one of these women
occurs. Thus, Lamazatum, who is both votary of Marduk
^^
Kohler and Ungnad, in volumes 3-5 of their Hammurabi's Gesetz, Leipzig,
1909-1911, have done a great service in making some fourteen hundred of the most
interesting among them accessible to a larger circle of readers in German trans-
lation.
-9
Cuneiform Texts, 8. 8 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 2484); 8. 26 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 42);
Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats, Paris, 1910, Nos. 147, 157.
^ Amo Poebel,
Babylonian Legal and Business Documents from the Time of the
First Dynasty of Babylon, Philadelphia, 1909, Nos. 6, 31, and 45.
31
Poebel, No. 8. ^2
Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats, No. 157.
^
Thureau-Dangin, No. 146. See also Cuneiform Texts, 6. 42 (= Bu. 91-5-9,
2470), where a Kadistu, named Eristum, and her sister, a votary of Samas, divide
an inheritance.
3^
Cuneiform Texts, 8. 34 ( = Bu. 88-5-12, 10). Cf Cuneiform Texts, 8. 8 ( = Bu.
.
91-5-9, 2484), v.here we read that Haliatum, another Marduk votary, had a daughter
named Iltani.
and zermasitum, marries, and it is agreed that her cliildren

are to be her heirs.^^ Another Marduk votary and her
husband adopt a son, and the record makes the provision
that they should get children, the adopted son should
if
always be recognized as eldest brother .^^ There is mention

of the marriage of a zermasitum named Labazi.^^ The
children of votaries are also adopted by others. Thus, a
man and his wife adopt the son of Huzalatum, votary of
Samas.^^ In another record Amat-Samas, a Samas votary,
gives her daughter in marriage, and receives from the groom
five shekels of silver.^^ In neither of the cases just cited is
any father named. But we may be sure either that the vo-
tarieswere or had been married, or that the daughters were
such by adoption. Zamidum, a kadistu of the god Adad,
adopts the daughter of labliatum, with the privilege of
selling the child in case it should renounce the adopting
mother.^^ A Samas votary, named Amat-Samas, gives in
marriage to her brother her daughter, apparently an adopted
daughter, with the provision that so long as the giver lives
the brother shall support her.^^ Such a provision is common
in records of adoption, and shows that one of the objects in the
adoption of children was to make sure of a support in one's
old age.
But the greatest activity of these women appears in busi-
ness transactions, including all forms of trading in real estate,
produce, money, and slaves. They divide the paternal prop-
erty with their brothers, and are parties to lawsuits both as
plaintiff and as defendant. Some of them are wealthy and
of high station. Babilitum, a votary of bamas, who brings
successful suit against her three brothers to recover her share
in the estate of their father, receives as her portion ten
slaves, besides other property.^ But the lady of highest
^5
Bruno Meissner, Beitrage zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht, Leipzig, 1893,
No. 94. 36
Cuneiform Texts, 8. 16 ( = Bu. 88-5-12, 33).
'^
H. Ranke, Babylonian Legal and Business Documents, Philadelphia, 1906,
No. 17. 38
Cuneiform Texts, 4. 39 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 617).
39
Thureau-Dangin, No. 90. In Cuneiform Texts. 8. 7 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 2183), a
mother consecrates two of her daughters to Samas with the stipulation that they
shall support her so long as she lives. Another Samas votary gives her property to
her granddaughter, by whom she is to be supported so long as she liv<\s, Cuneiform
Texts, 8. 17 (= Bu. 88-5-12, 39). « Cuneiform Texts, 6. 7 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 272).
birth is a certain Iltani, a Samas votary, daughter of the

king. Such a person is mentioned on three tablets as a
lender of grain.^^ These women were as a rule evidently
living in their own houses. That large numbers of them were
unmarried we may conclude from the circumstance that the
mention of husbands is so rare. But many others doubtless
were married. As married women they are less likely to be
mentioned in the records, or when they are mentioned there
is less probability that their position as consecrated women
would also be noted.
Therecord cited in note ^^ is of special interest, because it
is a lawsuit involving several orders of consecrated women.
One of these is married, and a second has a son. The story

is, in brief, as follows A certain man, named Addi-liblut,
:
is married to a Marduk votary, named Belisunu. The latter

had bought some real estate from a kadistu, named Ilusa-
hegal, who in turn had previously bought it from a votary
of Zamama. The kadistu claims that she had never been
paid by the Marduk votary. In the course of the story
mention is made of a son of the kadistu, who had witnessed
the sale and had affixed his seal to the tablet. The judges,
after weighing the evidence on both sides, refuse the claim
of Ilusa-hegal, and decree that neither she, nor her children,
nor her relations, shall ever again demand payment for the
property involved in the suit. Of what god Ilusa-hegal was
a kadistu we are not informed, but we do know from the
impression of her seal on the tablet that she was devoted to
the worship of Adad and his spouse, Sala. The seal im-
"
pression, which is in four lines, reads Ilusa-hegal, daughter
:
of Ea-ellatsu, worshipper of Adad and Sala."

But all this varied activity, the account of which might
easily be extended to large proportions, is secular in character.
What the religious functions of these women were we learn
as little from the commercial and social records as from the
Hammurabi Code.
It does not fall within the scope of this paper to inquire
what we may learn about consecrated women from other
«Meissner, Beitrage, No. 24; Cuneiform Texts, 8. 33 (= Bu. 91-5-9, 487);

Thureau-Dangin, No. 162.
native sources. But I may at least mention that we occa-

sionally meet with these characters in the other classes of the
literature.
In the Gilgamesh Epic, for instance, Ishtar of Erech, the
goddess of love, appears as wooing the hero, and as repulsed
by him for her former adventures and her fickleness.^- She is
attended by her maidens, the harirndti and the samhdti, who
are represented as lax in morals. In the same Epic the story
how one of them, called both harimtu and samhat, brought
Eabani into Erech by her wiles, is related with much realistic
detail. ^Ând when Gilgamesh and Eabani slew the bull
of Anu, Ishtar gathered about her the himhdti and the hari-
rndti and set up a lamentation over the bull.'*^ Erech is called
"the city of the kizreti, the samhdti, and the harirndti.'" ^^
These passages certainly indicate that there were excesses
committed in connection with the worship of Ishtar of Erech.
We have seen mention of a kadistu of Adad. Doubtless
devotees of various gods have the same title. Those of
Ishtar might easily have brought the title into disrepute,
since some of them at least were unchaste. But we may not
therefore conclude that there was anything improper about
the kadistu of the Code. It would be an unwarranted as-
sumption to identify her with Ishtar devotees, or to conclude
that because some persons who bore the name were unchaste
all such persons were.
In the magical literature like^îse we encounter the kadistu
and the zermasitum, as in Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western
Asia, 4. 50, col. 1, lines 44-45. In the reference given the names
are used as titles of the witch, who was an object of hatred and
of dread. But such passages do not seem to require any
modification of the impression which the Code makes as to
the character of the consecrated women in whose behalf it
legislates.
^ Tablet 6. columns 1-2. « Tablet 1, column 4. ^ Tablet 6, column 5.

^^
Edward J. Harper, in Beitrage zur Assyriologie, 2. 479, line 6.
FIGURINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART
Richard James Horatio Gottheil
Columbia University
During the last twenty-five years or so, various figurines

have been unearthed in northern Syria and in eastern Asia
Minor which are of interest from various points of view,
and around which many questions cluster regarding their
provenance and their significance. In Asia Minor the finds
have been made as far west as Angora, as far north as Ama-
sia, and as far south as Konia (Iconium) in Syria, at Marash,
;
Homs, and in the Lebanon mountains. But that the extent

of country covered is still greater may be seen from the fact
that a mould for making such figurines which has been in
the Louvre for many years is said to have come (somewhat
vaguely, it is true) from Phoenicia. This is of especial
interest because two of the four figurines which I propose
to discuss here are said very circumstantially to have been
unearthed in ancient Tyre.
' '
I have given the name Syro-Hittite to this species
of art, quite conscious that this is woefully a misnomer.
The term is used simply for the want of one that is better
and equally comprehensive. has been pointed out very
It
properly that the figurines belong to various strata of civil-

ization and to various forms of early Mediterranean art.
But a number of them have been found in regions where
Hittites are known to have dwelt, and the designation has,
therefore, a certain ambiguous warrant. Four of them are
to be found on the accompanying illustrations.
(a) The first of the four figurines is one of those said to have
been dug up at Tyre. It is made of a greenish bronze, and,
though the workmanship is unfinished, Greek influence is quite
apparent. I think that there can be no doubt that it is in-
361
362 FIGURINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART
tended to represent the god Pan —

the alyoTrpoacoTro^; koI rpajo-
cTKekrj'i, as Herodotus (ii. 46) calls him. The goat-like legs of
the figure area sufficient indication. The face, also, shows char-
acteristics that confirm this supposition snub nose, pro- :
truding lips, and the long beard. Similar peculiarities are

to be seen, e.g., on two marble statues in the National Mu-
seum at Athens, or on the marble statue of Pan taking a thorn
out of a person's foot in the Vatican collection.^ In addi-
tion, the head is capped by a helmet, instead of the more
usual truncated horns. This leads to the further supposi-
tion that the peculiar form of the god represented here is
that of the YVav arpaTidoTrj^ 'Pan the shepherd-god of,
'
war. ^ He seems to be pictured in the figurine either as
dancing or as marching, the right leg stepping forward and
the arms outstretched. What he originally held in his hands
it is difficult to say — perhaps spear and buckler. But it
isalso possible that the figurine wâs used as an ornament or

as a handle, and was fixed by the outstretched arms to some
larger object. At the end of the spinal column there is a
slight protuberance, of the meaning of which I am not quite
certain, unless it be meant to represent the tail of the lower
animal part of the body.
Many statuettes of the animal representation of Pan from
the Roman period of classic art have come down to us ;
but among the many I have been unable to find any model
that coincides exactly with this. From the somewhat primi-
tive character of the workmanship I should hardly imagine
that it was either purely Greek or purely Roman but rather ;
that it belongs to that mixed form of art w^hich Syria at times

produced under classical influence. There seems to be no
mention of any worship of Pan at Tyre. But in Northern
Palestine, at Banias (Panias), there did exist a grotto dedi-
cated to Pan and Pan is pictured on the imperial coinage
;
of KaLo-dpeca Uavid^.^ It is possible that the figurine is an-

other evidence of the worship of Pan in Syrian regions.
* The literature on these will be found cited in Roscher, Ausfiihrliches Lexikon

der griechischen und romischen Mythologie, cols. 1417, 1418.
2
Ibid., col. 1389.
'
Baudissin, Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte, 2. 155 ; Schilrer, Ge-
schichte des judischen Volkes, 2. 116 (2d ed.); Roscher, loc. cit., col. 1371.
B
I)
RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 363
(6) The second figurine, made of a more bluish bronze,

seems to lead us in quite a dififerent direction. It is still
attached to the lower mould on which it was made. The

peculiar high head-covering makes me at once suspect Egyp-
tian influence for it resembles in a remarkable manner the
;
so-called 'white crown' worn by Egyptian kings.^ The only

covering on the body is a girdle around the waist and what
appears to be a short tunic depending from it. The real
position of the hands it is impossible to determine. The left
one is raised the right has been broken away
;
but the ;
stump seems to show at least that it was extended. Down

the back of the head-covering and the neck there is a rill
which is probably nothing more than a foundry-mark.
The figurine is remarkably similar to one formerly in the
collection of the Musee Napoleon and now in the Louvre. This
last was found by M. Peretie at Tortosa on the Syrian coast
between Tripoli and Ladikiyah. It has been reproduced by
Longperier and by Perrot and Chipiez.^ Because of its rude
^
workmanship, and because it was not detached from the sup-

port upon which it was cast, Perrot believes it to be very
ancient to go back, as he expresses it, "aux debuts memes
:
de ITndustrie metallurgique." But, though the general char-

acter of the figure is similar to the copy in the Louvre, there
are some differences. The head-gear is not as straight as it
is in the Louvre figurine. It seems to bend in a little and to
bulge out again towards the top into a sort of bulb or knot.
The orbits of the eyes are not hollow the tunic is in one;
straight piece and not in three folds and it is the left arm
;
that is raised, not the right. Halfway down the legs of the
figurine there seems to have been a break or a fault in the
casting.
The question of the provenance of these two figurines
has, however, been singularly complicated by the discovery
in ancient Mykenian remains of statuettes in bronze that
bear the closest resemblance to them. The first was found
by Schliemann in 1876 at Tiryns, and is described by him as
that of an "upright, beardless warrior in the act of fighting." ^
*
See,e.g., Erman, Aegypten, pp. 95, 364, 367, 383.
^
Musee Napoleon, 3. 214 and plate xxi. ^
Histoire de I'Art, 3. 405.
^Schliemann, Tiryns, N. Y. 1885, p. 116; Mycense, p. 14, figure 12.
364 FIGURINES OF SYRO-HITTITE ART
The head covered with a helmet having a very high cone-

is
shaped top. The rest of the body is naked. The lance held
in the uplifted right hand, as well as the shield fastened to
the left is missing. Beneath the feet are two vertical
supports, which give us exactly the depth of the double
funnel through which the molten metal was run into the
mould. According to Schliemann the artificers did not yet
know the use of the file, and this, he says, "points to a high
antiquity." Other statuettes, alike in kind, have come to
light at Mykene itself;^ and a glance at their reproduction
is enough to assure us of their similarity to the one in my
possession, despite minor differences such as in the pattern

of the apron or breech cloth.
(c and d). The first two of the figurines, it will be seen,
bring us into connection with early classical civilization the ;
last two, however, seem to be the product of local artists,

and might with more propriety be called Syro-Hittite. I
have been unable to find out where they came from, as they
were acquired at a public sale. But c reminds me very
forcibly of a similar figurine found at Killiz,
between Aleppo
and Aintab, a few years ago, and published by Garstang
in the Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology issued by
the Institute of Archaeology at Liverpool (Vol. 1),^ and re-
published in his "Monuments of the Hittites."
^°
During
his travels in Cappadocia, Chantre was able to acquire a
number of such figurines, reproductions of which can be
found in his work. Mission en Cappadoce.^^
(d) The fourth statuette reminds me at once of number
2 ;
but its make is still more primitive. It has, however,
the same distinctive head-dress and the large ears which
are characteristic of most of these representations. That
the head-dress is also characteristic may be seen by compar-
*
Cf Chrestos Tsountas, The Mycenaean Age, Boston, 1897,
.
p. 161 ; von Lich-
tenberg, Einfluss der agaischen Kultur auf Agypten und Palastina, in Mittheilungen
'
der Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1911, p. 39. Plate xiv.
^°
P. 106. Cf. J. Menant, Quelques Figurines Heteennes en Bronze, in Revue
Archeologique, 26. 31 (1895). I have not been able to consult Peiser and Bczzen-
berger's article. Die bronze Figur von Schernen, in the Sitzungsberichte der Alter-
thumsgesellschaft Prussia, Heft 22, referred to by Garstang. In the same category
the little bronze group must be placed which was found in 1892 at Nerab near
Aleppo ; see Clermont-Ganueau, Eludes d'archeologie Orientale, 2. 186.
" 1898, p. 145.
RICHARD JAMES HORATIO GOTTHEIL 365
ing it with the head-dress of some of the warriors and gods

to be found in known Hittite remains.
In at least three of the figurines we seem to have represen-
tation of an art about which as yet we know very little.
This art is, it is true, extremely primitive. The conception
is raw and the execution most inferior. The artist is evi-
dently struggling both with his material and with his art,
and he must have lived entirely out of touch with the three
superior civilizations around him —
or at a time prior to
the introduction of their influence into these parts of Asia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
This Bibliography has been prepared by Mr. Harry Wolfson of New
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On Hebrew Verb-Etymology. Transactions of the Ameri-
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41-42).
1877
On Hebrew Verb.
the Nominal Basis of the Trans. Amer.
18-38 (Proceedings, 8. 29-30).
Phil. Assoc'n, 8.
Erdmann, C. F. D. The Books of Samuel. Translated,

Enlarged, and Edited by C. H. Toy and J. A. Broadus.
Pp. 616. New York, 1877.
1878
The Yoruban Language. Trans. Amer. Phil. Assoc'n, 9.
19-38 (Proceedings, 9. 3-5).
1879
Modal Development of the Shemitic Verb. Trans. Amer.
Phil. Assoc'n, 10. 5-25 (Proceedings, 10. 27-28).
367
3G8 BIBLIOGRAPHY
On the Shemitic Derived Stems. Proc. Anier. Phil.

Assoc'n, 10. 22.
1880
Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Psalms, by Thomas
Chalmers Murray, with Notes by C. H. Toy. New
York, 1880.
The Study of the Semitic Languages. Proc. Amer. Phil.
Assoc'n, 11. 10-13.
The Hebrew Verb-termination un. Trans. Amer. Phil.
Assoc'n, 18-34 (Proceedings, 11. 28-30).
11.
Remarks on J. G. Miiller's Semitic Theory. Journal of

the American Oriental Society, 10. Ixxii-lxxiii, 1880
(Proceedings for October, 1873).
The Study of Arabic. Harvard Register, 1. 212-213.
1881
On the Home of the Primitive Semitic Race. Trans.
Amer. Phil. Assoc'n, 12. 26-51 (Proceedings, 12. 6).
On the Babylonian Element in Ezekiel. Journal of the
Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, 1. 59-66.
1882
The History of the Religion of Israel an Old Testament
:
Primer. Pp. xvii + 150. Boston, 1882 2d ed., ;
1883 3d ed., 1884 and several later editions.

; ;
The Semitic Personal Pronouns. Proc. Amer. Phil.

Assoc'n, 13. x-xii.
1883
Recent Progress among the Baptists. Christian Register,
62. 292.
1884
Quotations in the Old Testament. Pp. xliv + 321. New

York.
The Date of the Korah Psalms. Journal Soc. Bib. Lit.
and Ex., 4. 80-92.
1885
On Noun-Inflections in the Sabean. Journal Amer. Or.
Soc, 11. xxix-xxxi, 1885 (Proceedings for May, 1880).
BIBLIOGRAPHY 369
Remarks on Guyard's Theory of Semitic Internal Plurals.

Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 11. lix-lx, 1885 (Proceedings
for May,1881).
Notice of F. Delitzsch's Views as to the Alleged Site of Eden.
Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 11. Ixxii-lxxiii, 1885 (Proceedings
for October, 1881).
On the Kushites. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 11. cviii-cix,
1885 (Proceedings for May, 1882).
The Masoretic Vowel System. Hebraica, 1. 137-144.
The Revised Old Testament. Christian Register, 64.
468, 500, 516-517, 549-550 (1885).
The Date of Deuteronomy. Unitarian Review, 23. 97-
118.
The New Philology. Science, 6. 366-368.
1886
On the Asaph Psalms. Journal Soc. Bib. Lit. and Ex.,
6. 73-85.
The Present Position of Pentateuch Criticism. Unitarian

Review, 25. 47-68.
On Maccabean Psalms. Ibid., 26. 1-21.
A New English Dictionary. (Review of the Dictionary of
the Philological Society.) Science, 7. 557-558.
The Older Arabic Poetry. Harvard Monthly, 1. 135-148.
1887
Kuenen's Critical Work. Christian Register, 66. 117.
Rise of Hebrew Psalm-Writing. Journal Soc Bib. Lit.
and Ex., 7. 47-60. I
Modern Biblical Criticism. Unitarian Review, 28. 354-

359 (also printed as a separate tract).
1888
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Old Testament Student, 8. 124-133.
1889
The Thousand and One Nights. Atlantic Monthly, 63.
756-763.
370 BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Lokman Legend. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 13.

clxxii-clxxvii (Proceedings for May, 1887).
1890
Evil Spirits in the Bible. Journal of Biblical Literature,

9. 17-30.
On Some Phonetic Peculiarities of Cairo Arabic. Journal
Amer. Or. Soc, 14. cxii-cxiv (Proceedings for October,
1888).
Judaism and Christianity; a Sketch of the Progress of
Thought from Old Testament to New Testament.
Pp. xvii 456. +
Boston, 1890.
Ethics and Religion. Popular Science Monthly, 36.
727-744.
"That it might be Fulfilled." The Unitarian, June, 1890
(5. 284-285).
1891
Analysis of Genesis ii., iii. Journal Bib. Lit., 10. 1-19.

Relation of Jesus to Christianity. Christian Register, 70.
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The Study of the Bible. Ibid., 70. 748-749.
The Religious Element in Ethical Codes. International
Journal of Ethics, 1. 289-311.
1892
Kuenen's Life and Work. Christian Register, 71. 40.

Dr. C. A. Briggs. Ibid., 71. 728-729.
Abraham Kuenen. The New World, 1. 64-88.
1893
Myths and Legends as Vehicles of Religious Teaching.

Christian Register, 404-405. 72.
Israel in
Egypt. The New World, 2. 121-141.
The Parliament of Religions. Ibid., 2. 728-741.
1894
W. Robertson Smith. Christian Register, 73. 266.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 371
1896
The Pre-Prophetic Religion of Israel. The New World,
5. 123-142.
Text-Critical Notes on Ezekiel. Journal Bib. Lit., 15. 54-58.
Biblical Criticism. Christian Register, 75. 264-265.
1897
The Meaning of nOD. Journal Bib. Lit., 16. 178-179.
Accadian-Babylonian and Assyrian Literature. Library
of the World's Best Literature, 1. 51-83.
The Old Testament and the Jewish Apocrypha. Ihid., 27.
10775-10818.
1898
Esther as Babylonian Goddess. The New World, 7.
130-144.
1899
Messianic Predictions. Christian Register, 78. 723.
Messianic Passages. Ihid., 78. 750.
The King in Jewish Post-Exilian Writings. Journal Bib.
Lit., 18. 156-166.
The Earliest Form of the Sabbath. Ihid., 18. 190-194.
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Hebrew Text, with Notes (Polychrome Edition) Leip-.
zig, 1899. Pp. iv +

116. (Part 12 of The Sacred Books
of the Old Testament.)
The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. A New English Trans-
lation, with Explanatory Notes (Polychrome Edition).
New York, 1899. Pp. viii + 208. (The Sacred Books
of the Old and New Testaments.)
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Prov-
erbs. New York and Edinburgh, 1899. Pp. xxxvi +
554. (The International Critical Commentary.)
Taboo and Morality. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 20. 151-156,
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331.
1900
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tian Register, 79. 65-69.
Charles Carroll Everett. The New World, 9. 714-724.
372 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1901
Ecclesiasticus. Encyclopaedia Biblica, 2. columns 1164-

1179.
Ezekiel. Ibid., 2. columns 1456-1472.
1902
Creator Gods. Journal Amer. Or. Soc, 23. 29-37.
Remarks on the Hebrew Text of Ben-Sira. Ibid., 23. 38-
43.
Proverbs. Encyc. Bib., 3. columns 3906-3919.
1903
Sirach. Encyc. Bib., 4. columns 4645-4651.
Wisdom Literature. Ibid., 4.columns 5322-5336.
Book of Wisdom. Ibid., 4. columns 5336-5349.
1904
Recent Discussions of Totemism. Journal Amer. Or.
Soc, 25. 146-161.
1905
An Early Form of Animal Sacrifice. Journal Amer. Or.
Soc, 26. 137-144.
Mexican Human Sacrifice. Journal of American Folk-
Lore, 18. 173-181.
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1906
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Studien .... Theodor Noeldeke gewidmet, pp. 797-
804.
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nal of Ethics, 16. 145-157.
1907
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212.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 373
1908
On Some Conceptions of the Old Testament Psalter. Old

Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William
Rainey Harper, 1. 1-34.
Survey of Recent Literature of the Old Testament. Har-
vard Theological Review, 1. 377-381.
1909
Dusares. Anthropological Essays presented to Frederic
Ward Putnam. Pp. 584-600.
1910
The Higher Criticism. Christian Register, 89. 455-457.

Pan-Babylonianism. Harvard Theological Review, 3.
47-84.
Ecclesiastes. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8. 849-853.
Ezekiel. 102-104.
Ibid., 10.
Job (in part). Ibid., 15. 422-427.
Book of Proverbs. Ibid., 22. 506-510.
Book of Wisdom. Ibid., 28. 749-750.
Wisdom Literature. Ibid., 28. 750-751.
1912
The Islam of the Koran. Harvard Theological Review,
5. 474-514.
Date Due
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SwUdies in ihe history of

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited

STUDIES s2L^v^;GAl %^1

CRAWFORD HOWELL TOY

DAVID GORDON LYON

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1912,

The Harvard Club for the Study of the History of

DAVID GORDON LYON,

George Lyman Kittredge, Harvard University.

Buddhist and Christian Parallels: The Mythological

Satirists and Enchanters in Early Irish Literature . 95-130

Saint Peter and the Minstrel 131-142

The Liver as the Seat of the Soul 143-168

Morris Jastrow, Jr., University of Pennsylvania.

The Sikh Religion 169-186

Maurice Bloomfield, Johns Hopkins University.

Yahweh before Moses 187-204

Der Schluss des Buches Hosea 205-211

Karl Budde, Marburg University.

The Sacred Rivers of India 213-229

Edivard Washburn Hopkins, Yale University.

The Two Great Nature Shrines of Israel Bethel and :

John Punnett Peters, Saint Michael's Church, New York.

AsiANic Influence in Greek Mythology

William Hayes^Ward, The Independent," New York.

The Theologicai/ School at Nisibis ..... PAGES

George Foot Moore, Harvard University.

The Translations made from the Original Aramaic Gos-

Charles Cutler Torrey, Yale University.

Oriental Cults in Spain 319-340

Clifford Hcrsehel Moore, Harvard University.

The Consecrated Women of the Hammurabi Code . 341-360

David Gordon Lyon, Harvard University.

Figurines of Syro-Hittite Art 361-365

Richard James Horatio Gottheil, Columbia University.

Harry Wolfson. New York.

Common fame makes James I. a sinister figure in the his-

utmost selfishness of fear." ^ "Treacherous, cruel, narrow-

in mind were "rampant in England when good Queen Bess

70,000 persons were executed up to 1680.*

I stand aghast at these figures. There is no sense or

to make out an average of more than two or three executions a

ernment to enact laws 'not suffering a witch to live.'

authorship of the Dsemonologie.

(3) The worst period of Scottish prosecution does not fall in

Upon this last point we must dwell for a moment. In

throws on the king's skepticism. Agnes also implicated the

they appear in a striking passage of the Basilikon Doron.^*

says in plain terms that he "could not have controlled the

just after the Revolution, and in our own Salem at a critical

thinking of other matters than witches when he came into

(BaziXix"" Sorwv, Freen monarchies, Monologie, Expositions upon the Reuelacions

tion of the BasilikonDoron in the same year. This had been

felony without benefit of clergy." So far he is quite cor-

not once mention sorcery, magic, or witchcraft. The third

making a crosse at every diuision and when he had finished :

his worke, he came to M. Starchie and desiered him to go and

Furthermore, the Elizabethan statute provided that

or to dig up any dead body, or part thereof, for use in sor-